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THE  STORY  OF 
THE  RAINBOW  DIVISION 


THE   STORY  OF  THE 
RAINBOW  DIVISION 

BY 

RAYMOND  S.  TOMPKINS 

WITH  AN   INTRODUCTION  BY 

MAJOR  GENERAL  CHARLES  T.  MENOHER 

COMMANDER   OF  THE  RAINBOW  DIVISION 
THROUGH  ALL  ITS  FIGHTS 


BONI     AND     LIVERIGHT 
New    York  1919 


Copyright,  1919, 

By  BONI  &  LiVERIGHT,  iNa 


AU  rights  reserved 


Printed  in  the  U,  S.  A, 


Vis- 


FOREWORD 

When  the  history  of  the  recent  world  war  has 
been  analyzed,  it  will  be  found  that  the  psycho- 
logical forces  at  work  have  been  the  most  power- 
ful of  all  those  called  into  exercise  to  save  the 
world  for  democracy. 

The  fact  that  the  "Rainbow"  Division  was 
composed  of  elements  of  the  National  Guard 
selected  from  a  majority  of  the  states  of  the 
Union  should  have  constituted  an  element  of 
weakness ;  should  have  made  for  lack  of  cohesion. 
If  the  idea  of  constituting  a  division  in  this  way 
was  a  happy  thought,  the  selection  of  the  name 
"Rainbow"  for  this  composite  organization  was 
an  inspiration.  I  consider  that  the  name  in  itself 
was  perhaps  the  strongest  asset  the  Division  had. 
Instead  of  lack  of  cohesion ;  instead  of  an  organ- 
ization made  up  of  elements,  each  with  local  in- 
terests that  might  have  been  antagpnistic,  the 
Division  constituted  a  complete,  compact,  cohe- 
sive, single  unit  which  ran  like  a  well  oiled  ma- 

V 


vi  Foreword 

chine.  Of  course,  it  had  a  most  excellent  staif, 
which  was  headed  by  a  most  brilliant  officer,  Gen- 
eral MacArthur,  and  the  Division  was  privi- 
leged to  plume  itself  more  or  less  on  its  excellent 
staff  work.  Yet  I  believe  these  desirable  results 
would  never  have  been  arrived  at  without  the 
name  "Rainbow," 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  on  the  morning 
when  the  Division  left  the  Baccarat  Sector,  after 
four  months  of  intensive  training  in  trench  war- 
fare, to  be  thrown  in  in  the  Champagne  to  assist 
in  checking  this  last  desperate  drive  of  the  Ger- 
mans, a  most  beautiful  rainbow  appeared  directly 
over  the  sector  occupied  by  the  Division.  Again 
on  the  morning  the  Division  became  engaged  on 
the  Ourcq,  another  beautiful  rainbow  appeared 
directly  over  the  point  where  contact  was  first 
gained.  On  at  least  one  other  occasion  this  same 
phenomenon  appeared. 

When  on  the  defensive  as  in  the  Champagne, 
resisting  the  desperate  attempts  of  the  Germans 
to  break  through,  there  never  was  any  thought — 
it  never  entered  into  the  calculations,  that  the 
Division  might  have  to  retire.     In  the  same  way 


Foreword  vii 

when  on  the  offensive,  there  was  never  any 
thought  except  that  of  going  forward. 

To  have  commanded  such  a  body  of  men 
throughout  the  entire  time  of  its  service  against 
the  enemy,  of  some  nine  months,  was  a  privilege 
indeed. 

In  this  book  the  story  of  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion has  been  told  accurately,  fully  and  absorb- 
ingly. As  nearly  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so  in  a 
narrative  that  tells  of  the  experiences  of  but  one 
division,  "The  Story  of  the  Rainbow"  tells  the 
story  of  America's  part  in  the  Great  War. 


Major-General. 


CONTENTS 

Fart  One 

PAOB 

I.    The5  Rainbow  Appears  and  Goes  Over 

There 9 

II.    Valley  Forge  Again;    The  First  Smell 

OF  Battle 23 

III.  The  Rainbow's  Story  begins  to  be  the 

Story  of  the  War 28 

IV.  America's  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide  in 

Last  and  Greatest  Trench  Battle: 
The  Champagne-Marne  Defensive     .       44 
V.    The   Rainbow's   First    Attack — Across 

the  Bloody  Ourcq 70 

VI.    And  Speaking  of  Elsie  Janis  ....       96 
VII.    With  the  First  American  Army  in  the 

Stroll  through  St.  Mihiel       .     .     .     102 
VIII.    Through  the  Argonne  to  Sedan  .     .     .     125 

FaH  Two 

IX.  On  to  Ger]vla.ny 147 

X.  Belgium  Laughs  Again 166 

XI.  So  this  is  Germany 180 

XIL  "Die  Wacht  AM  Rhein" 190 


CONTENTS 

CEAPTXB  PAQB 

XIII.  "The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"      .     198 

XIV.  The  Boche  Unmasked 217 

XV.    Castles  on  the  Rhine 228 

Ajppendix 

I.    Roster  of  Rainbow  Division  Officers  at 

Camp  Mills,  in  October,  1917      .      .     233 
II.    Roster  of  Rainbow  Division  Officers, 

Nov.  11,  1918 240 

III.    Movements,  Material  Captured,  Casual- 
ties    244 

rv.    Citations  and  Commendations       .     .     .     250 


PARTI 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   KAINBOW    APPEAES    AND    GOES    OVER    THEEE 

On  what  day  or  with  what  evolutionary  proc- 
ess the  United  States  actually  came  to  realize 
that  it  was  at  war  may  some  time  become  a 
matter  of  much  argument. 

Nobody,  perhaps,  will  say  that  the  realization 
came  immediately  upon  our  severance  of  diplo- 
matic relations  with  Germany.  Some  people 
may  declare  that  it  came  with  the  start  or  the 
end  of  the  first  Liberty  Loan  campaign.  Some 
may  hold  that  it  came  with  the  publication  of  the 
first  casualty  list. 

But  if  the  people  in  twenty-six  States  of  the 

Union  and  the  District  of  Columbia  will  hark 

back  to  the  month  of  August,  1917,  either  by 

getting  out  the  old  newspapers  of  that  month 

and  hunting  through  them,  or  merely  by  testing 

their  own  recollections,  they  will  come  fairly 

9 


10;  ,   The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

close  to  settling  that,  getting  down  to  brass  tacks 
(by  which  expression  men  distinguish  the  actual 
doing  of  a  thing  from  the  promise  to  themselves 
or  their  friends  that  they  are  going  to  do  it),  the 
United  States  actually  got  into  the  Great  War 
on  August  14,  1917. 

It  was  a  story  in  the  afternoon  newspapers  of 
that  day  that  did  it;  a  story  saying  that  a  division 
of  American  troops  was  to  be  formed  from  Na- 
tional Guard  organizations  in  twenty-six  States 
and  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  was  to  be  or- 
ganized at  once  for  immediate  service  overseas. 
It  was  to  be  named  "The  Rainbow  Division." 

The  nation  was  being  called  to  arms ! 

The  names  of  the  twenty-six  States  were 
printed.  They  were  scattered  States,  not 
grouped  together  in  any  one  section  of  the  coun- 
try. They  took  in  every  section  except  New 
England.  To  serve  in  this  combat  division  men 
were  coming  from  as  far  west  as  California  and 
Oregon  and  as  far  east  as  New  York  and  Mary- 
land. The  Washington  correspondents  who  had 
grabbed  the  story  from  the  War  Department 
and  flashed  it  red-hot  all  over  the  nation  had 


Rainbow  Appears  and  Goes  Over  There      11 

many  glorious  words  to  say  about  the  fact  that 
America's  sons  from  the  north  and  the  south,  the 
east  and  the  west  were  at  last  going  to  fight  side 
by  side  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy. 
America  was  sending  a  "Rainbow"  of  hope  to 
Europe. 

So  of  course  it  thrilled  the  nation.  The  Na- 
tional Guard  soldiers  were  the  "home  soldiers." 
Somebody  in  every  little  town  belonged  to  the 
State  organization.  The  girls  all  went  to  their 
dances  and  they  always  marched  in  the  Decora- 
tion Day  and  Fourth  of  July  parades  and  the 
armories  were  the  scenes  of  every  community's 
biggest  "affairs." 

One  American  division  had  already  gone  to 
France,  but  that  was  a  division  of  "regulars." 
The  news  of  their  arrival  and  of  General  Per- 
shing's arrival,  hazy,  carefully  censored  news  that 
it  was,  also  had  been  thrilling,  but  the  average 
American  always  thought  of  "regulars"  as  peo- 
ple apart;  adventurous,  wandering  souls  who 
lived  in  some  sort  of  "post"  out  in  the  Indian 
country.  They  never  thought  of  "regulars"  in 
connection  with  "home." 


12      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

But  they  thought  of  this  news  of  August  14 
in  direct  connection  with  "home,"  and  that  was 
what  made  the  "Rainbow  Division"  announce- 
ment so  important  to  the  people  who  read  the 
newspapers  that  day.  The  United  States  had 
declared  war  on  April  6,  but  the  meaning  of  war 
did  not  strike  home  until  August  14.  That  was 
the  day  the  birth  of  the  Rainbow  Division  be- 
came news.  Its  organization  actually  dated  from 
August  5,  but  the  secret  had  been  kept  for  nine 
days. 

By  September  13,  it  was  a  husky,  fully-clothed 
youth,  waiting  at  Camp  Albert  L.  Mills  on  Long 
Island,  New  York,  for  orders  to  sail.  It  had 
taken  almost  a  full  month  to  gather  it  together — 
simply  to  get  the  twenty-seven  thousand  men  in 
one  place,  to  say  nothing  of  clothing  them  and 
equipping  them. 

Camp  Mills  was  a  great  tent-covered  plain  ad- 
joining the  Mineola  Aviation  Field.  It  was  a 
center  of  news  interest  to  Americans  everywhere, 
for  it  was  one  of  the  first  great  camps  where 
American  soldiers  were  gathering  to  go  to  war. 

All  the  men  were  volunteers.    Many  of  them 


Rainbow  Appears  and  Goes  Over  There      13 

were  "rookies";  their  uniforms  were  new  and 
stiff-looking  and  they  moved  around  awkwardly. 
For  there  had  been  hasty  recruiting  in  some  of 
the  States  to  get  the  Rainbow  together.  They 
drilled,  drilled,  drilled — all  day  and  every  day, 
and  though  they  were  the  pick  of  America's  Na- 
tional Guard  they  were  hounded  and  harried  un- 
mercifully by  the  grizzled  drilled  sergeants  of  the 
regular  army.  So  the  broad  drill  field  was  a 
small  world  unto  itself — a  drilling,  sweating, 
cursing  little  world,  preparing  to  fight. 

But  the  Sundays  and  the  holidays  were  the  old 
traditional  war  days  of  gaiety  and  merry-making 
and  sweet  successions  of  leave-taking.  Then  the 
camp  streets  were  thronged  with  friends  and 
relatives  of  the  men  in  the  Rainbow  Division. 
In  automobiles  they  came  from  States  fairly 
close  at  hand,  and  in  special  trains  they  poured 
in  from  distant  cities.  The  old  cavalry  troop  that 
the  home-folks  knew  had  become  a  military  police 
outfit,  and  the  old  coast  artillery  company  was 
now  a  trench-mortar  battery  known  by  some  un- 
familiar number,  but  somehow  the  home-folks 
got  to  the  right  tents. 


14      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Being  unused  to  great  armies  they  didn't  all 
know  what  a  "division"  was,  and  they  thought 
this  one  was  called  "The  Rainbow"  because  there 
were  so  many  different  colored  hat-cords  on  the 
campaign  hats.  Much  as  the  giving  of  their  own 
sons  meant  to  them,  the  real  significance  of 
"Rainbow  Division,"  when  they  finally  learned 
it,  made  it  mean  more,  somehow ;  the  thought  of 
a  great  bow  of  hope  bending  over  the  nation  from 
coast  to  coast.  It  was  a  well-chosen  name,  that 
"Rainbow." 

More  than  anything  else  this  name  made  a 
wonderfully  smooth  machine  out  of  the  mixed-up 
mass  of  men  who  represented  as  many  different 
American  ideals,  traditions  and  temperaments  as 
they  represented  American  commonwealths  and 
communities.  For  instance,  there  were  the  old 
Fourth  Alabama  Infantry  and  the  old  69th  New 
York  Infantry.  These  two  regiments  had 
fought  against  each  other  in  the  Civil  War. 
They  came  to  Camp  Mills  to  join  the  Rainbow 
— the  grandsons  of  the  Civil  War  fighters — 
ready  to  carry  on  the  North  and  South  struggle 
where  it  had  ended  in  the  sixties.     And  they 


Bainhow  Appears  and  Goes  Over  There,      15 

carried  it  on.  The  New  York  Irishmen  and  the 
Alabama  cotton-planters  fought  each  other  all 
over  Camp  Mills.  Hardly  a  day  passed  without 
seeing  a  pitched  battle  somewhere  around  the 
camp  between  the  men  of  the  167th  and  the 
165th. 

Yet  in  every  battle  the  Rainbow  fought  in  the 
war,  Alabama  and  New  York  fought  side  by 
side. 

National  Guard  infantrymen  were  to  be  the 
machine-gunners  and  they  had  come  from  three 
distinct  sections  of  the  nation.  Four  companies 
of  the  old  Fourth  Pennsylvania  regiment  made 
up  the  149th  machine-gun  battalion,  three  com- 
panies of  the  Second  Wisconsin  made  up  the 
150th,  and  three  companies  of  the  Second  Geor- 
gia were  in  the  151st.  The  three  field  artillery 
regiments  came  from  Minnesota,  Indiana  and 
Illinois;  the  infantry  from  Ohio,  New  York, 
Iowa  and  Alabama;  the  engineers  from  North 
Carolina  and  California. 

And  the  ammunition  train  came  from  Kansas, 
the  supply  train  from  Texas,  the  signal  troops 
from  Missouri.     The  military  policemen  were 


16     The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

from  Virginia,  the  trench  mortar  battery  men 
from  Maryland,  and  both  these  outfits  had  left 
home  as  coast  artillery.  Men  from  New  Jersey, 
Tennessee,  Oklahoma  and  Michigan  were  to 
drive  the  Rainbow's  ambulances,  and  men  from 
the  District  of  Columbia,  Nebraska,  Oregon  and 
Colorado  were  to  run  the  Field  Hospitals.  The 
Division  Headquarters  Troop  was  Louisiana 
cavalry.  The  Division  Staff  officers  came  from 
everywhere  in  the  country. 

From  every  conceivable  station  and  walk  of 
life,  from  every  heath  and  every  sort  of  hearth 
in  the  nation  they  came  to  Camp  Mills,  and  they 
buried  every  prejudice  in  an  overwhelming  love 
and  loyalty  for  the  name  and  spirit  of  "Rain- 
bow" as  freshmen  do  for  the  name  and  spirit  of 
their  college. 

The  Secretary  of  War  and  later  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States  reviewed  the 
division  before  thousands  of  spectators.  At 
nights  officers  and  men  were  guests  at  big  houses 
on  Long  Island.  There  were  dances  and  garden- 
parties.  And  all  the  time  quartermasters  were 
struggling  to  get  the  men  equipped  and  shipping 


Rainbow  Appears  and  Goes  Over  There      17 

authorities  were  struggling  to  get  ships  to  take 
them  to  France.  Time  was  flying.  The  war 
was  going  on.  The  Germans  seemed  to  be  not 
weakening,  but  growing  stronger. 

Toward  the  middle  of  October  the  dances  and 
garden  parties  ceased.  It  became  more  and  more 
difficult  for  the  automobile  tourists  and  special- 
train  travelers  to  get  into  Camp  Mills.  And 
finally,  on  October  18,  the  Rainbow  Division  was 
gone. 

At  two  o'clock  that  morning,  with  no  lights 
and  no  sound,  the  first  column,  consisting  of  the 
117th  Trench  Mortar  Battery  from  Maryland, 
and  the  Second  Battalion  of  the  166th  Infantry 
from  Ohio,  moved  to  the  train  at  Garden  City, 
Long  Island,  then  to  the  ferry  at  Long  Island 
City  and  then  to  the  docks  at  Hoboken.  The 
other  elements  followed  rapidly.  By  six  p.  m* 
the  whole  convoy  of  ships — the  Covington,  The 
President  Lincoln,  President  Grant,  Tenadores, 
Pastores  and  Mallory — anchored  down  the 
Hudson. 

Next  morning  land  had  disappeared,  the  open 


18     The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

sea  was  all  around  them,  the  ships  were  bound 
for  France. 

Submarines  were  still  rampant  at  that  time. 
The  strictest  caution  was  necessary.  Officers 
and  men  with  fresh  memories  of  house-parties 
and  the  stirring  music  of  bands  on  parade  still 
ringing  in  their  ears,  began  to  know  the  hard- 
ships of  war.  In  later  days  many,  many  thou- 
sands of  American  soldiers  lived  over  again  the 
life  the  Rainbow  lived  on  the  ocean,  but  in  those 
days  nobody  knew  what  it  was  until  they  had 
tried  it.  Crowded  like  horses  into  narrow  bunks, 
with  the  plainest  of  food,  in  total  darkness  at 
night,  denied  even  the  solace  of  a  cigarette  ex- 
cept by  daylight,  always  having  boat  drills — it 
was  the  Rainbow  Division's  first  test  in  stern 
discipline. 

About  three  days  out  the  President  Grant 
disappeared.  The  rumor  spread  from  ship  to 
ship  that  she  had  been  torpedoed.  She  was 
carrying  a  whole  infantry  regiment,  the  168th, 
from  Iowa.  But  she  had  simply  developed  en- 
gine trouble  and  had  gone  back  to  port. 

The  rest  of  the  voyage  was  without  incident. 


Bainhow  Appears  and  Goes  Over  There      19 

except  that  at  daybreak  on  the  last  day  of  Octo- 
ber a  wireless  message  reported  a  waiting  fleet 
of  submarines  at  the  entrance  to  the  Port  of  St. 
Nazaire,  near  Bell  Isle.  The  course  was  changed 
and  the  danger  avoided.  And  about  dusk,  Octo- 
ber 31,  with  the  Tenadores  leading  and  the  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  close  behind,  the  Rainbow  Division 
entered  the  port  of  St.  Nazaire. 

Rain  and  a  dreary  looking  mudhole  for  a  town 
— that  was  the  division's  first  impression  of 
France.  Some  of  the  townspeople  were  there 
around  the  wharf  to  greet  the  American  soldiers. 
The  debarkation  of  a  convoy  of  American  troops 
was  not  a  common  occurrence  then.  Nor  had 
the  S.  O.  S.  (the  Service  of  Supplies)  of  that 
day  achieved  the  efficiency  it  achieved  later.  The 
first  convoy  of  the  Rainbow  Division  was  just 
seven  days  getting  off  the  boats.  It  was  assem- 
bled at  Camp  No.  1,  about  two  miles  outside  of 
St.  Nazaire. 

The  unfavorable  impression  of  France  grew 
during  the  first  few  days,  rather  than  diminished. 
It  rained  steadily.  The  mud  was  ankle  deep. 
Stores  and  cafes  charged  extortionate  prices. 


20     Tlie  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

The  collapse  in  Russia  and  the  Italian  reverses 
were  announced.  And  America  was  thousands 
of  miles  away  and  the  war  bade  fair  to  last  four 
years.  Then  and  there  most  of  the  Rainbow 
Division  renounced  expectations  of  ever  going 
home  again.  They  looked  at  the  future  grimly 
and  with  set  teeth. 

Gradually  the  division  left  for  training  areas. 
The  Artillery  Brigade,  made  up  of  Illinois,  In- 
diana and  Minnesota  troops,  went  to  Coetquidan 
in  Brittany,  with  the  Ammunition  Train,  an  all- 
Kansas  outfit.  The  Trench  Mortar  Battery 
went  to  Langres;  Division  Headquarters  and 
the  Infantry  went  to  the  Vaucouleurs  area. 

Yaucouleurs  is  in  Lorraine,  near  Toul.  It  was 
from  that  village  Joan  of  Arc  started  on  her  cru- 
sade for  France.  The  Rainbow  landed  there  in 
box  cars  after  a  long  ride  across  the  country, 
and  were  less  impressed  with  the  historical  sig- 
nificance of  their  new  billets  than  with  the 
manure  piles  in  all  the  front  yards,  by  the  height, 
breadth  and  odor  of  which  French  village  citizens 
proclaim  their  worldly  worth.  French  money 
[was  a  costly  puzzle.    French  verbs  eluded  them 


Eainhow  Appears  and  Goes  Over  There.      21 

and  they  had  terrible  times  buying  eggs.  The 
people  were  always  kind,  but  politely  uncertain 
of  the  ability  of  our  untrained  troops  to  stand 
against  the  Germans.  But  gradually  the  divi- 
sion adapted  itself,  novelties  of  the  Old  World 
became  commonplace  affairs,  and  the  Rainbow 
got  down  to  business. 

The  training  schedule  began  in  earnest.  It 
was  the  result  of  the  experience  of  all  the  Allies, 
brought  up  to  the  minute.  Officers  and  special- 
ists in  one  branch  or  another  of  the  new  warfare 
attended  schools  and  the  daily  drill  under  the 
eyes  of  French  and  American  instructors  in- 
cluded artillery,  machine-guns,  rifles,  pistols, 
trench-mortars  and  37  millimeter-gun  target 
practice ;  bayonet  and  gas  drill,  digging  trenches, 
building  shelters  and  wire  entanglements,  roads 
and  bridges ;  visual  and  mechanical  signaling  and 
the  art  and  science  of  liaison;  maneuvers  and 
terrain  problems,  disciplinary  drill  of  many  sorts, 
grenade  throwing  and  marches. 

At  Vaucouleurs  the  165th  Infantry — the  old 
69th  New  York — and  some  smaller  elements  of 
the  division  which  had  not  been  in  the  first  con- 


22      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

voy  joined  the  division.  The  men  who  had  had 
to  tuifi  back  on  the  President  Grant  caught  up 
about  December  12  in  what  was  known  as  the 
LaFuche  area,  adjoining  the  Vaucouleurs  area. 
They  had  come  by  way  of  Liverpool  and  Brest ; 
had  seen  how  strictly  the  British  were  regulating 
food  supplies  and  had  been  uproariously  wel- 
comed in  England. 

Christmas  was  drawing  near.  The  Rainbow 
had  now  been  almost  two  months  in  France. 
What  would  Christmas  Day  be?  What  was 
coming  next  and  how  soon? 

They  got  the  answer  just  before  Christmas 
Day,  spent  the  jolly  festival  in  packing  up  and 
getting  ready  to  move,  and  the  day  after  were 
on  their  way  to  the  Rolampont  area,  about  100 
kilometers  to  the  rear,  on  a  hike  that  no  Rainbow 
Division  man  who  made  it  with  his  two  feet  will 
ever  forget. 


CHAPTER  II 

VALLEY  FOEGE  AGAIN ;  THE  FIRST  SMELL  OF  BATTLE 

Vaucouleurs  was  not  the  training  area  in 
which  the  Rainbow  Division  belonged;  it  had 
been  sent  there  because  the  mihtary  situation  on 
the  Western  Front  made  necessary  desperate 
speed  in  getting  the  newly  arrived  Americans 
somewhere  and  getting  them  there  at  once.  The 
area  intended  for  the  Rainbow's  training  period 
was  the  Rolampont  area  and  that  was  not  at 
first  ready  to  receive  them.  It  was  near  the  city 
of  Langres  and  was  known  as  the  Seventh  Train- 
ing Area.  To  Rolampont,  then  about  100  kilo- 
meters from  Vaucouleurs,  the  division  started  on 
the  day  after  Christmas. 

Always  the  men  of  the  Rainbow  will  remem- 
ber that  march  as  "The  Valley  Forge  Hike." 

The  supply  system  of  the  American  Expedi- 
tionary Force  was  not  then  what  it  became  in  the 

23 


24      Tlie  Story  of  the  Bdnhow  Division 

summer  and  fall  of  1918,  when  whole  corps  could 
move  forward  in  great  attacks  and  scarcely  ever 
lack  for  food  and  clothing  except  in  the  farthest 
lines  of  advance.  The  Rainbow  Division  started 
the  hike  to  Rolampont  with  scarcely  any  shoes 
except  what  the  men  had  on  their  feet ;  there  was 
no  surplus  supply  to  speak  of.  Some  of  the  men 
had  no  overcoats.  And  they  had  barely  started 
before  a  blizzard  sprang  up. 

They  count  the  "Valley  Forge  Hike"  as  hav- 
ing lasted  four  days,  though  the  start  from  Vau- 
couleurs  was  made  fourteen  days  before  that. 
They  were  four  days  going  from  Vaucouleurs  to 
LaFuche,  rested  there  about  ten  days  and  then 
started  for  Rolampont.  The  four  days  on  the 
way  to  Rolampont  was  the  "Valley  Forge"  part. 

They  made  most  of  the  hike  on  sheer  grit. 
Great  drifts  piled  up  under  the  sweeping  winds, 
and  in  some  places  the  snow  lay  flat  three  or  four 
feet  deep.  The  men  were  not  hardened  to  long 
hikes  even  under  fair  conditions;  they  had  not 
entirely  straightened  out  the  kinks  of  the  cramp- 
ing ocean  trip. 

Their  shoes  wore  out — ^men  were  marching 


Valley  Forge  Again  23 

barefooted  through  the  snow  sometimes;  they 
wrapped  bags  around  their  feet  and  kept  on. 
There  were  bloody  tracks  along  the  route  of  the 
column.  At  night  they  pulled  up  in  some  little 
village  and  slept — exhausted  heaps  of  half- 
frozen  men  huddling  together  in  barns  and  hay- 
lofts to  keep  warm.  Some  of  them  soaked  their 
feet  in  buckets  of  icy  water  to  draw  out  the  frost. 

There  was  not  much  automobile  transporta- 
tion in  those  first  days,  either ;  only  the  Division 
Commander  and  the  Brigade  commanders  had 
cars.  The  colonels  of  the  regiments  rode  mules, 
but  often  one  of  them  dismounted  and  let  an 
exhausted  man  ride  while  he  walked. 

The  thermometer  went  below  zero.  Cases  of 
mumps  and  pneumonia  developed,  and  the  sup- 
ply of  ambulances  was  too  small  to  carry  the  men 
to  hospitals  as  rapidly  as  they  became  ill.  In  one 
regiment  five  hundred  men  were  unable  to  keep 
on. 

But  with  that  pride  in  the  name  and  honor  of 
"The  Rainbow,"  and  with  what  straining  of 
nerve  force  only  the  men  themselves  know,  the 
division  came  through.     The  hardships  the  men 


26      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

endured  during  that  period  drew  them  together 
as  nothing  else  had  done ;  and  though  in  the  string 
of  battles  that  came  later  they  faced  terrific  fire 
and  fought  ahead  for  days  and  nights  without 
food  or  sleep,  not  a  man  who  made  it  will  ever 
forget  the  "Valley  Forge  Hike." 

It  was  just  before  New  Year's  Day,  1918, 
when  they  reached  the  Rolampont  area.  There 
the  Rainbow  settled  down  to  have  its  equipment 
completed,  get  the  finishing  touches  to  its  train- 
ing, and  await  orders  to  go  into  the  trenches. 

General  Mann  was  succeeded  here  as  Division 
Commander  by  Major-General  Charles  T. 
Menoher.  As  the  division  thawed  out  and  got 
clothes  and  shoes  and  fighting  equipment,  its 
confidence  grew.  The  future  was  shaping  up 
now,  growing  plainer;  there  was  fighting  ahead, 
that  was  certain,  but  they  wanted  to  fight.  They 
were  eager  to  get  up  there  on  the  line.  They 
looked  around  them  at  this  new  bit  of  rural 
France  with  its  poor  dwellings,  its  toy-engines 
and  railroad  coaches  and  its  general  air  of  pov- 
ertj^  and  thought  (expressed  it,  too),  "The  Ger- 
mans can't  be  so  good  or  they'd  have  licked  the 


Valley  Forge  Again  27 

French  long  ago."  Later  they  realized  that  there 
was  a  deeply  valorous  spirit  behind  these  out- 
ward things  of  France  and  odious  comparisons 
between  France's  ancient  oddities  and  America's 
modern  greatness  were  forgotten  in  sheer  ad- 
miration of  the  fine  bravery  of  France's  soldiers. 
Then,  on  February  15,  1918,  came  the  orders 
to  go  to  the  front.  The  preliminaries  were  over. 
For  the  Rainbow  the  war  was  about  to  begin. 
On  February  16  the  division  entrained  and  rolled 
northward,  toward  the  Luneville  Sector  in  Lor- 
raine. From  that  direction  came  the  smell  of 
battle. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  rainbow's  STORY  BEGINS  TO  BE  THE  STORY 
OF  THE  WAR 


It  was  the  day  before  the  birthday  of  George 
Washington  that  the  Rainbow  Division  finished 
detraining  within  inarching  distance  of  the 
trenches  in  the  Luneville  Sector — about  10  miles 
back.  The  Sixty-seventh  Artillery  Brigade,  Na- 
tional Guard  artillerymen  from  Indiana,  Illinois 
and  Minnesota,  had  finished  shooting  at  targets 
around  Coetquidan  and  had  caught  up. 

Luneville  was  the  "quiet  sector''  the  War  De- 
partment was  telling  the  people  about  back 
home.  Actually  there  had  been  no  fighting  there 
since  1914,  when  the  Germans  had  reached  Ram- 
bervillers,  destroyed  the  villages  and  withdrawn. 
A  rolling,  wooded,  rich  country  was  this  part  of 
Lorraine — altogether  too  beautiful  to  be  the 
scene  of  battle.    And  by  a  sort  of  tacit  agreement 

2S 


The  Rainbow's  Story  29 

both  Germans  and  French  had  been  sparing  the 
villages;  neither  side  used  gas,  and  in  the  day- 
time a  shot  was  seldom  heard. 

With  the  arrival  of  the  Rainbow  Division 
things  changed. 

They  went  into  the  trenches  quietly  enough. 
The  First  Division,  when  it  had  entered  the  line 
previously  in  a  nearby  sector,  had  aroused  the 
suspicions  of  the  Germans  and  brought  down  on 
their  own  heads  a  deadly  burst  of  fire,  and  a  raid 
in  which  they  had  lost  prisoners.  Profiting  by 
the  First's  experience  the  Rainbow  sneaked  into 
position  and  took  up  its  vigil  over  ISTo-Man's- 
Land  in  the  night  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
Germans  and  without  losing  a  single  man. 

But  a  new  foe  was  facing  the  Boche  in  Lor- 
raine— a  youthful,  eager  foe,  confident  of  his 
untried  strength  and  impetuous  to  use  it.  And 
he  knew  there  were  a  hundred  million  people 
back  home  wondering  how  he  would  use  it  and 
how  he  was  getting  along.  So  the  Germans 
were  not  long  without  knowledge  of  the  change 
in  their  enemy's  order  of  battle. 

It  was  many  weeks  later  that  there  went 


80      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

abroad  the  story  about  the  Germans  who  came 
out  of  their  trench  to  wash  some  clothes  in  a 
shell-hole  in  No-JVTan's-Land,  in  full  sight  of 
the  Americans.  It  was  a  true  story,  and  it  hap- 
pened during  the  Rainbow  Division's  first  few 
days  in  the  trenches,  and  Alabamians  in  the  167th 
Infantry  were  the  heroes  of  it. 

The  Germans  had  washed  clothes  in  that  shell- 
hole  before  and  nothing  had  happened.  They 
had  known  that  nothing  would  happen.  On  their 
side  the  French  had  peacefully  smoked  their 
pipes  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  on  the  very  top 
of  the  trenches.  It  was  simply  one  of  the  work- 
ings out  of  the  tacit  agreement. 

But  a  little  outpost  of  Alabamians  got  one 
glimpse  of  this  group  of  Boche  in  undershirts 
arrogantly  dipping  dirty  clothes  in  the  water  of 
No-Man's-Land,  and  they  opened  fire.  The 
Germans  scattered  like  rabbits,  some  of  them 
hugging  wounds. 

A  French  officer  came  rushing  to  the  outpost 
in  a  fury  of  excitement.  What  did  the  Ameri- 
cans mean?  They  had  done  a  terrible  thing! 
Now  the  Germans  would  be  angry  and  every- 


The  Rainbow's  Stort^  31 

body  was  in  for  a  period  of  shelling  and  gas  and 
raids!  He  rebuked  the  hot-headed  Yanks 
sternly. 

"What  the  hell?"  said  one  of  the  men  later. 
**I  came  out  here  to  kill  these  Boche,  not  to  sit 
here  and  watch  'em  wash  clothes." 

But  there  was  justice  in  the  French  officer's 
rebuke.  The  Rainbow  Division  was  the  pupil  of 
the  French  Army.  Going  into  the  line  it  had 
been  divided  into  small  units  and  brigaded  with 
four  French  Divisions  of  the  Seventh  French 
Corps.    This  is  the  way  it  was  divided: 

The  165th  from  New  York  plus  two  com- 
panies of  the  150th  Machine-Gun  Battalion  from 
Wisconsin  were  with  the  164th  French  Infantry 
Division,  with  their  front  line  in  the  Foret  de 
Parroy.  The  166th  Infantry  from  Ohio  plus 
the  other  two  companies  of  the  150th  Machine- 
Gim  Battalion  were  in  the  St.  Clement  sector 
with  the  14th  French  Division.  The  168th  In- 
fantry from  Iowa,  167th  from  Alabama,  and 
the  151st  Machine-Gun  Battalion  from  Georgia 
were  in  the  Baccarat  sector  with  the  128th 
French  Division.    The  rest  of  the  Rainbow  units 


S2      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

were  distributed  along  the  front  of  the  Seventh 
French  Corps,  where  they  could  be  of  most  use 
and  get  the  most  experience. 

The  irate  French  officer  had  been  right,  too, 
in  his  estimate  of  the  result  of  the  Alabamians' 
rashness.  The  tacit  agreement  for  a  kid-glove 
war  in  Lorraine  went  somewhat  to  pieces  from 
that  moment.  The  Germans  knew  now  that  new 
American  troops  were  just  across  the  way.  They 
didn't  have  to  depend  upon  instinct  to  prove  it. 
They  could  see  the  men  and  the  uniforms,  just 
as  our  men  could  see  the  Germans,  so  close  to- 
gether were  the  trenches  in  some  places.  It  was 
enough. 

At  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  March  5 
the  Boche  came  over,  and  the  men  of  the  Rain- 
bow had  their  first  battle. 

For  several  minutes  the  German  batteries 
poured  a  rain  of  shells  on  every  trench  and  every 
known  position  from  which  the  Americans  might 
fire  back.  They  counter-batteried  the  artillery; 
their  77s  cut  the  protecting  barbed-wire  to  pieces. 
They  dropped  a  barrage  behind  the  trenches  to 
cut  off  both  retreat  and  reinforcements.     They 


The  Rainbow's  Story  33 

were  certain  that  all  the  green  Americans  who 
did  not  die  of  fright  would  be  either  killed  by 
the  fire  or  captured  by  the  picked  German 
raiders,  who  now  came  across  behind  the  barrage 
about  a  hundred  strong  with  ready  bayonets. 

The  Americans  were  green — they  were  not 
veterans  and  they  didn't  act  like  veterans.  They 
were  horribly  scared,  too.  But  they  were  also 
at  that  moment  the  most  alert  and  desperate 
bunch  of  young  lowans  in  the  world. 

The  spot  toward  which  the  raid  was  directed 
was  a  little  group  of  ruined  brick  buildings  just 
north  of  Badonvillers,  known  as  Le  Chamois 
Farm.  The  168th  Infantry  was  holding  it.  It 
was  right  at  the  junction  of  two  valleys,  an  ideal 
place  to  sneak  upon,  but  a  death  trap  if  properly 
defended. 

What  it  took  to  defend  it  properly  the  lowans 
were  all  broken  out  with.  Within  one  minute 
after  the  first  alarm  they  opened  up  down  the 
valley  with  their  rifles,  the  Marylanders  cut  loose 
with  trench-mortars,  and  the  Georgians  turned 
on  the  machine-guns.  It  was  their  first  chance 
to  fire  and  they  were  as  vivacious  about  it  as 


34      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

debutantes  at  a  coming-out  ball.  The  field  artil- 
lery, French  and  American,  joined  it.  Dumb- 
founded and  maddened  at  the  resistance,  the 
Germans  tried  to  rush  the  trenches,  but  they  got 
not  even  to  the  first  line.  Dawn,  breaking  slowly 
through  the  mist  and  smoke,  showed  three  bodies 
in  field-gray  hanging  grotesquely  over  the  torn 
wire. 

One  officer  and  eighteen  men  of  the  Rainbow 
were  killed  in  this,  the  first  little  battle,  and 
twenty-two  wounded.  But  it  was  a  victory;  the 
raid  had  been  repulsed.  No  Man's  Land  was 
strewn  with  German  dead. 

The  spirit  of  the  Division  took  a  great  leap. 
It  had  discovered  for  itself  one  of  the  biggest 
truths  the  war  produced — that  the  American 
doughboy  could  lick  the  Boche.  Their  French 
comrades  were  likewise  enthused  and  reassured. 
The  Rainbow's  first  batch  of  Croix  de  Guerres 
were  awarded  for  bravery  in  this  brush. 

Four  days  later,  March  9,  the  Rainbow  par- 
ticipated in  a  raiding  party  of  its  own,  assisted 
by  the  French.  For  four  hours  American  light 
and  heavy  artillery,  trench-artillery  and  machine- 


The  Bainhow's  Story  35 

guns  beat  upon  the  German  first  and  second  lines, 
and  at  five-thirty  p.  m.  French  and  American 
soldiers  went  over  the  top  together,  destroyed 
the  German  shelters,  captured  a  few  prisoners, 
and  returned  with  slight  losses.  Colonel  Doug- 
las Mac  Arthur,  the  Chief -of -Staff,  captured  one 
of  these  prisoners.  He  had  gone  over  the  top  in 
a  doughboy's  uniform  and  held  a  Boche  up  with 
his  .45.  The  French  gave  him  the  Croix  de 
Guerre  for  it. 

On  March  17,  in  the  woods  called  Rouge 
Bouquet,  in  the  Foret  de  Parroy,  immortalized 
in  one  of  the  late  Sergeant  Joyce  Kilmer's  poems 
of  the  war,  two  officers  and  50  men  from  the  first 
battalion  of  the  165th  fought  the  Germans  out  of 
a  strong  point  and  destroyed  it.  Four  New 
Yorkers  were  killed,'  three  wounded,  and  one  re- 
ported missing.  Twenty  Croix  de  Guerres  came 
to  the  165th  for  that  bit  of  work.  They  took  the 
German  trench  and  held  it,  the  first  permanent 
gain  ever  made  by  American  troops  in  France. 

By  this  time  the  Rainbow  had  been  holding  a 
front-line  sector  for  almost  a  month.  It  had 
earned  a  rest;  it  was  ordered  to  take  one.    And 


86      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

it  has  been  suggested  since  that  the  title  of  the 
Rainbow  Division's  story  ought  to  be  '*Rests  We 
Never  Got." 

From  that  time  on  it  never  had  a  rest,  as  other 
divisions  came  to  know  the  term.  Rest  after  rest 
ordered  for  it,  but  the  war  always  cancelled  the 
orders.  Once,  on  August  20,  it  went  into  inten- 
sive training  around  Bourmont,  south  of  Neuf- 
chateau,  for  ten  days,  but  it  didn't  rest. 

And  here,  coming  out  of  the  Luneville  sector 
on  March  20  and  being  concentrated  by  March 
23  near  Gerbervillers,  about  15  miles  behind  the 
line,  prepared  to  march  leisurely  back  to  Rolam- 
pont,  it  got  orders  to  stop. 

The  great  German  offensive  of  March  21  had 
begun.  For  two  days  every  German  gun  from 
the  North  Sea  to  the  Swiss  border  had  fired 
steadily  on  towns,  roads,  batteries,  posts  of  com- 
mand. Then  had  come  the  news  of  the  German 
break-through  before  Amiens. 

The  Rainbow  Division  turned  around  and 
marched  back  to  the  front,  and  from  that  mo- 
ment its  history  is  the  history  of  the  war. 

To  begin  with,   it   figured  in  the  complete 


The  Rainbow's  Story  87 

change  of  the  Allies'  military  policy.  The  men- 
ace to  Amiens  had  produced  Marshal  Foch  as 
Supreme  Allied  Commander.  General  Pershing 
had  made  his  historic  offer  to  Marshal  Foch — 
the  use  of  the  whole  American  Army  to  handle 
as  he  wished.  All  previous  plans  were  dropped, 
and  in  order  to  release  the  128th  French  Division 
to  go  to  the  Somme,  the  Rainbow  was  ordered  to 
take  over  the  Baccarat  Sector.  Thus  came  to 
the  Rainbow  the  honor  of  being  the  first  Ameri- 
can division  to  occupy  a  divisional  sector  all  its 
own,  under  its  own  commander.  Command  of 
the  Baccarat  sector  passed  to  Major-General 
Menoher  on  March  31. 

All  through  April  there  were  raids  and  pa- 
trols, but  nothing  unusual  happened.  The  Ger- 
mans were  not  trying  to  break  through  here; 
their  effort  was  concentrated  much  further  to 
the  north  and  west,  and  the  Rainbow  Division, 
with  a  month  of  trench  vigil  already  to  its  credit, 
was  content  to  take  what  rest  it  could.  The 
weather  grew  warm  and  sunny,  the  military  out- 
look on  the  Somme  improved,  the  men  began  to 
feel  at  home  in  the  trenches. 


38      The  Story  of  the  Rcdvbow  Division 

They  busied  themselves  improving  all  the  de- 
fensive works  of  the  sector,  and  completing  their 
training.  Every  man  was  given  an  opportunity 
to  become  proficient  in  his  own  fighting  specialty, 
whether  that  was  stringing  telephone  wires,  dig- 
ging trenches,  sniping,  hauling  ammunition,  ob- 
serving artillery  fire,  or  cooking  army  rations. 
Gradually  the  Rainbow  Division  began  to  find 
itself;  slowly,  with  the  budding  of  spring,  it  be- 
gan to  "feel  its  oats,"  and  by  the  beginning  of 
May  it  passed  that  famous  point  where  it  "could 
be  pushed  just  so  fur  and  no  fu'ther."  Fights 
just  burst  right  out  of  it. 

There  was  a  beautiful  little  forest  called  the 
Bois  de  Chiens  near  Ancerviller.  It  was  full  of 
Boche.  They  had  made  an  apparently  impreg- 
nable position  of  it,  filling  it  with  networks  of 
wire  and  concrete  trenches  and  blockhouses  con- 
cealing minewerf er,  machine-guns  and  the  deadly 
77's.  The  whole  thing  was  covered  with  dense 
forest  and  commanded  the  open  level  ground  on 
three  sides. 

Into  this  stronghold,  on  May  2,  French  and 
American   artillery  poured   a   destructive   fire, 


The  Rainbow's  Story  39 

which  continued  until  dusk  of  the  next  day.  At 
that  time  the  Third  Battalion  of  the  166th  In- 
fantry, an  Ohio  regiment,  penetrated  the  entire 
salient  under  command  of  Major  Henderson, 
with  virtually  no  losses.  A  "go-and-come  raid," 
they  called  it.  The  raiders  found  the  Forest  of 
Oaks  completely  destroyed.  Its  trenches  were 
filled,  all  works  above  ground  leveled,  wire  en- 
tirely torn  down,  and  the  forest  itself  turned  into 
almost  a  bare  field. 

Two  mornings  later.  May  5,  Lieut.  Cassidy 
of  the  165th  led  a  party  over  and  sneaked  around 
behind  a  German  outpost  at  Hameau  dAncer- 
viller.  They  jumped  on  the  Germans,  killed  two 
and  captured  four.  Sergeant  O'Leary  made  one 
resisting  German  his  own  special  prize.  While 
O'Leary  was  killing  him  with  a  trench-knife, 
Lieut.  Cassidy  held  up  two  others  with  his  pistol. 
They  brought  the  prisoners  back  across  No- 
Man's-Land  under  heavy  machine-gun  fire. 
Lieut.  Cassidy  was  made  a  captain  before  the 
war  ended,  and  was  twice  wounded.  Sergeant 
O'Leary  was  killed  in  battle  on  the  Ourcq. 

Three  Alabama  snipers  brought  on  another 


40      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

mixed  fight  on  May  12,  when  they  went  out  in 
broad  daylight  to  see  if  their  new  camouflage 
suits  would  camouflage.  They  lay  in  front  of  a 
dugout  and  when  Germans  began  filing  out  they 
began  firing  as  fast  as  they  could  load  and  pull. 
Almost  immediately  the  Germans  came  rushing 
out  in  such  great  numbers  that  the  Alabamians 
would  have  been  overwhelmed  if  they  hadn't 
started  a  retreat.  Two  got  back  safely ;  the  third 
was  missing. 

"Let's  go  get  him!"  said  the  Southerners,  so  a 
party  of  about  a  dozen  went  over  the  top.  They 
found  No-Man's-Land  full  of  Germans  waiting 
for  them  in  the  tall  grass.  Greatly  outnumbered, 
the  Alabamians  exchanged  shots  with  them  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  more  Germans  came  out,  until 
there  were  more  than  a  hundred.  So  the  rescue 
party,  too,  retreated,  while  one  man  with  an  auto- 
matic rifle  lay  in  a  shell-hole  holding  the  Ger- 
mans back  from  the  chase  with  a  steady  stream 
of  bullets.  And  when  the  Alabamians  got  into 
their  own  trenches,  instead  of  one  man  missing, 
there  were  two.  The  automatic  rifleman  hadnt 
come  back. 


The  Bainhow's  Story  41 

Two  snipers'  private  little  hunting  party  bade 
fair  now  to  become  a  pitched  battle.  The  blood 
of  the  Alabama  mountain  men  was  up.  Lieut. 
Breeding,  who,  they  say,  was  a  full-blooded 
Indian,  gathered  nearly  a  whole  platoon  and 
went  out  to  wipe  the  Boches  up,  and  bring  back 
both  the  Americans.  Now  crawling,  now  dash- 
ing forward,  whooping  and  yelling  as  they  came. 
Breeding's  men  fell  upon  the  Germans  and 
routed  them.  Whenever  they  could  they  used 
the  bayonet,  and  they  killed  seven  Germans  and 
wounded  many  more,  without  a  single  casualty 
to  themselves. 

And  they  brought  back  the  automatic  rifle- 
man, but  the  missing  sniper  they  never  found. 
In  his  place  they  brought  one  dead  German, 
whom  they  hung  over  the  wire  as  a  challenge, 
guarding  him  constantly  until  the  division  came 
out  leaving  him  there — a  skeleton  in  rotted, 
bullet-torn  field  gray. 

Thus  the  Rainbow  again  took  the  "quiet"  out 
of  the  "quiet  sector."  The  Germans  retaliated 
with  deluges  of  gas  and  with  raids.  On  the  night 
of  May  26-27,  they  launched  a  projector  attack 


42      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

on  the  Village  Negre,  northeast  of  Badonviller. 
Seven  hundred  gas-shells  of  large  caliber  de- 
scended all  at  once  and  without  warning  upon 
the  Rainbow  along  a  front  of  about  four  hundred 
meters.  It  caught  the  Iowa  infantry  by  surprise 
and  the  high  concentration  of  deadly  gas  killed 
and  disabled  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  officers 
and  men.  Simultaneously  the  Boches  laid  down 
an  artillery  barrage  and  attempted  to  raid  the 
trenches,  but  were  repulsed. 

Two  nights  later  they  tried  the  same  thing, 
but  this  time  the  Rainbow  was  ready.  It  had 
improved  its  gas  discipline  and  its  losses  were 
only  fifty-three  officers  and  men. 

Then  came  rumors  of  a  great  Grcrman  offen- 
sive in  Lorraine.  The  bivouac  of  a  battalion  of 
storm  troops  was  discovered  on  the  Rainbow's 
front  and  promptly  destroyed  by  artillery.  De- 
fensive works  were  strengthened  and  every  night 
the  entire  command  prepared  to  receive  the  at- 
tack, determind  to  beat  it  back.  But  it  never 
came. 

Another  relief  order  arrived.  Again  the  Rain- 
bow Division's  thoughts  were  directed  backward 


The  Rainbow's  Story  43 

toward  the  quiet  rest  area,  where  it  could  browse 
around  peacefully  for  a  few  weeks  and  sleep  at 
night  and  get  cleaned  up. 

The  order  was  received  at  division  headquar- 
ters at  Baccarat  on  June  19.  By  June  21  the 
Rainbow  was  out  of  the  trenches,  leaving  the  61st 
French  Division  and  the  77th  American  National 
Army  Division  from  New  York  to  hold  the  Bac- 
carat sector,  and  it  was  concentrated  between 
Rambervillers  and  Charmes,  ready  to  start  again 
for  Rolampont.  It  had  been  holding  the  line  for 
three  full  months,  and  that  record  for  continuous 
duty  was  neither  broken  nor  approached  by  any 
other  American  division  throughout  the  war.  At 
last  (thought  everybody)  the  long-deferred  rest 
was  in  sight.    That,  to  repeat,  was  June  21. 

On  June  11  the  Rainbow  Division  was  entrain- 
ing, not  foi'  Rolampont,  but  for  another  part  of 
the  front.  The  blood-red  pen  of  war  history  was 
moving  too  fast  for  American  soldiers  to  rest. 


CHAPTER  IV; 

America's  rainbow  turns  the  tide  in  last  and 
greatest  trench  battle:  the  cham- 
pagne-marne  defensive 

He  was  a  dirty,  unshaven  German  sergeant 
and  he  stood  pale  and  nerve-shaken  before  a 
French  intelligence  officer  in  a  candle-lighted 
dugout  deep  in  the  chalk-white  soil  of  the  Cham- 
pagne country.  It  was  like  shimmering  gray  silk 
now,  though — that  soil — for  night  had  come,  the 
night  of  July  14,  1918,  and  the  plains  were 
bathed  in  warm  moonlight  and  the  clear  sky 
studded  with  stars. 

A  little  French  raiding  party  had  brought  him 
in;  one  of  those  fearless  patrols  of  veteran  'poiluSj 
wary  as  deer,  cunning  as  panthers,  who  stole  in 
and  snatched  and  were  away  with  their  quarry 
in  the  twitch  of  a  trigger-finger.  A  picked  pa- 
trol it  was  on  this  night — picked  from  the  best 

44 


Americas  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      45 

because  its  mission  must  not  fail.  The  German 
attack  was  at  hand.  Gouraud  had  said  it  and 
Gouraud  knew.  He  had  felt  before  the  first  of 
July  that  it  was  coming;  by  the  fifth  he  had 
known  it  for  a  certainty.  And  the  fourteenth 
was  French  Independence  Day  and  Gouraud 
knew  the  German  logic. 

"They  will  all  be  drunk,"  so  the  one-armed 
French  hero  of  the  Dardanelles  and  commander 
of  the  Fourth  French  Army  guessed  the  German 
estimate  of  France's  readiness.  "They  will  all  be 
drunk  with  celebrating  and  we  will  kill  them 
where  they  lie." 

Surprise,  complete  unreadiness — that  was  the 
German's  desperate  hope;  their  highest  card — 
and  their  last.  General  Gouraud's  troops  in  the 
Champagne  before  Chalons-sur-Marne  could  ex- 
pect to  drink  deep  to  Bastille  Day  with  perfect 
safety,  for  a  German  attack  there,  they  might 
well  think,  would  be  madness.  The  opposing 
lines  had  been  virtually  stationary  there  since 
1914.  Before  Chalons  from  the  Argonne  to 
Rheims  the  Allies'  trench  systems  were  five  miles 
deep,  with  great  dugouts  and  vast  wire  fields.    It 


46     The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

was  perhaps  the  most  perfectly  organized  defen- 
sive position  on  the  whole  western  front.  Yes 
(thought  von  Hindenburg),  the  French  will  ex- 
pect to  be  safe  there  on  the  fourteenth  of  July, 
1918 — safe  and  drunk! 

They  had  failed  at  Chateau-Thierry.  The 
Marne  salient  to  that  point  did  not  afford  ma- 
neuver room  for  another  major  German  offen- 
sive. Wave  after  wave  of  smashing  attack  the 
Hun  had  hurled  against  Verdun  on  the  right  and 
Rheims  on  the  left  and  they  had  all  been  futile. 
They  had  tried  to  widen  on  their  right  in  the  di- 
rection of  Compiegne  and  Montdidier,  but  there 
the  Allied  armies  were  known  to  have  concen- 
trated their  reserves.  What,  then,  beside  these 
things  and  the  probability  of  surprise,  moved  the 
German  high  command  to  plan  a  drive  on  Cha- 
lons through  five  miles  of  defenses  ? 

This:  that  their  lines  of  communication  were 
shorter  and  superior;  that  they  could  operate  on 
a  straight  line  while  the  Allied  reserves  could 
come  from  north  of  Paris  to  Chalons  only  around 
the  Marne  salient  via  Vitry-le-Fran9ois,  and  that 
Chalons  once  taken,  a  jumping-off  point  for  the 


Americans  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      47 

next  drive  on  Paris  could  be  chosen  at  will.  But 
above  all,  surprise. 

The  candles  in  the  dugout  flickered  with  the 
vital  intensity  of  the  moment  it  seemed,  but  prob- 
ably it  was  only  with  the  throb  of  a  gun  begin- 
ning the  ordinary  night  harassing.  The  intelli- 
gence officer  put  his  question  bluntly,  almost 
carelessly.  When,  he  wanted  to  know,  would 
this  attack  come? 

"Tonight,"  said  the  German  sergeant. 

"Eh  hien — and  at  what  hour  would  the  bar- 
rage begin?" 

"At  twelve  o'clock,"  the  German  sergeant  an- 
swered. They  took  him  off  toward  Chalons  to  a 
prison  pen  to  paint  "P.  G."  on  his  back.  And 
the  intelligence  officer  whispered  over  the  wires 
a  word  and  a  number — "Francois,  one-four-O !" 
Men  in  deep  holes  in  the  ground  throughout  miles 
of  the  Champagne's  chalky  desert  caught  it  up 
and  passed  it  on — "Francois,  one-four-O" — and 
it  went  out,  farther  and  farther  toward  the  Ger- 
man lines,  and  stopped  where  the  things  it  her- 
alded would  begin — in  the  dugouts  of  the  French 
sacrifice  companies. 


48      The  Story  of  the  Bainhow  Division 

There  was  nothing  now  between  those  com- 
panies and  death  but  a  few  hours'  sleep,  and  a 
few  minutes  of  hand-to-hand  fighting.  It  was 
the  code-signal  that  the  night  of  the  German 
attack  had  come. 

In  five  minutes  (and  it  was  then  but  a  little 
after  dark)  the  whole  Fourth  French  Army 
knew  it  and  was  ready,  Americans  and  all. 

And  the  whole  Fourth  French  Army  heard 
again  Gouraud's  call  of  the  week  before:  "None 
will  look  behind ;  none  will  give  way.  Kill  them ; 
kill  them  in  abundance  until  they  have  had 
enough." 

The  Americans  were  the  men  of  the  Rainbow 
Division.  Coming  out  of  the  Baccarat  sector  on 
June  21,  "for  a  rest,"  they  had  instead  moved  by 
rail  to  Camp  de  Chalons  with  headquarters  at 
Vadenay  Farm  in  the  Champagne  area,  for  spe- 
cial training.  They  had  landed  there  June  29, 
and  were  about  to  carry  out  a  minor  operation 
near  Chatillon-sur-Marne  when  Marshal  Foch, 
learning  of  the  German  plan  against  Chalons, 
again  availed  himself  of  General  Pershing's  of- 
fer, and  looked  about  for  one  high-spirited,  hard- 


'Americas  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      49 

fighting  American  Division.  By  the  first  of  July 
the  Rainbow,  a  five-months-old  American  war- 
baby,  was  a  part — the  only  American  part — of 
Gouraud's  plan  of  defense.  By  the  tenth  it  and 
all  the  French  divisions  with  it  were  in  their 
places  before  Chalons. 

It  was  a  novel  plan  of  defense;  elastic  is  the 
one  word  that  best  describes  it.  It  was  the  great- 
est and  most  successful  of  plans  for  the  defense 
of  an  old-time  trench  system;  for  as  this  proved 
to  be  the  last  of  the  great  trench  battles  of  the 
war,  so  also  was  it  the  fiercest  and  most  decisive. 
The  most  threatening  advance  on  Paris  had  been 
stopped  earlier  in  the  summer  but  that  Allied 
success  had  not  broken  the  German  power  of 
large-scale  oifensives. 

Gouraud  had  abandoned  his  first-line  system 
and  turned  it  into  a  mass  of  death  traps.  No 
soldiers  were  there  except  the  handful  of  French 
men  in  sacrifice  companies  prepared  to  face  cer- 
tain death  for  the  sake  of  keeping  the  Germans 
fooled  into  believing  that  the  signal  flares  and 
rockets  they  sent  up  by  night  and  their  own  vis- 
ible movements  by  day  meant  that  the  first  line 


50      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

was  full  of  troops.  Armed  with  machine  guns, 
they  were  to  wait  there,  first  in  deep  dugouts 
while  the  bombardment  went  on,  then  in  the  midst 
of  labjrrinths  of  wire  so  thick  that  they  could  not 
get  out  and  no  one  else  could  get  in,  and  they 
were  to  delay  the  German  advance  and  separate 
the  German  infantry  from  the  German  barrage, 
until  overwhelmed  by  sheer  force  of  numbers. 

At  sunset  the  evening  before  the  attack  they 
were  pitching  horseshoes  inside  their  barbed-wire 
backyards. 

So  all  the  German  bombardment  on  the  first 
lines  by  trench-artillery  and  minenwerfer  would 
be  time,  labor  and  ammunition  wasted. 

For  his  first  real  infantry  defense  Gouraud 
had  moved  his  troops  back  to  the  intermediate 
line,  about  three  miles  from  the  German  posi- 
tions. On  the  extreme  left,  just  south  of  Au- 
berive-sur-Suippes,  were  the  third  and  second 
battalions  of  the  165th  Infantry,  all  New  York- 
ers, and  the  third  battalion,  166th,  from  Ohio,  and 
on  the  extreme  right,  northeast  of  Souain,  were 
Alabamians  of  the  second  battalion,  167th  In- 
fantry, and  lowans  of  the  second  battalion,  168th 


America's  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      51 

Infantry.  Between  the  Alabamians  and  the 
New  Yorkers  ran  the  ancient  Roman  road  to 
Chalons-sur-Marne.  They  were  the  guardians 
of  the  pass. 

In  the  second  line  from  left  to  right  five  miles 
from  the  German  positions  were  the  117th  Engi- 
neers from  California  and  South  Carolina  ready 
to  fight  as  infantry;  first  battalion,  165th  Infan- 
try; first  and  second  battalions,  166th  Infantry; 
first  and  third  battalions,  167th  Infantry,  and 
first  and  third  battalions,  168th  Infantry.  Min- 
gled with  them  were  French  soldiers  of  the  170th 
Division  on  the  left  and  the  13th  Division  on  the 
right.  The  Rainbow  had  been  brigaded  with 
two  French  Infantry  Divisions. 

The  Rainbow  artillery  was  likewise  brigaded 
with  the  French,  Col.  Leach  with  the  151st  Field 
Artillery  from  Minnesota  being  on  the  right  in 
support  of  the  second  position,  and  Col.  Riley 
with  the  149th  from  Illinois  on  the  left.  Of  the 
150th  artillery  regiment  from  Indiana  under  Col. 
Tyndall,  one  battalion  was  on  the  right  and  two 
on  the  left. 

The  farthest  advanced  American  unit  in  the 


52      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

battle  system  was  the  117th  Trench-Mortar  Bat- 
tery from  ]\Iaryland.  It  was  out  beyond  the  in- 
termediate line  on  the  right,  charged  with  the 
duty  of  delaying  the  German  advance  with  show- 
ers of  bombs. 

Back  of  the  second  line  were  shelters  filled  to 
bursting  with  animals  and  transportation,  and 
around  and  behind  them  was  artillery  of  all  cali- 
bers with  great  heaps  of  ammunition.  The  gun- 
ners were  sleeping  by  the  guns.  Still  farther 
back  were  ammunition  and  supply  dumps,  hos- 
pitals (a  big  one  at  Bussy-le-Chateau),  and  at 
Vadenay  Farm  was  Headquarters  of  the  Rain- 
bow Division,  with  General  Menoher  in  com- 
mand and  Col.  MacArthur  chief  of  staff.  Be- 
hind all  these,  twenty  miles  away  from  the  Qer- 
man  lines — the  prize  the  Hun  sought  on  this 
clear,  warm,  moonlight  night  of  July  14,  1918 — 
stood  the  city  of  Chalons-sur-Marne,  a  black  blot 
on  the  ghost-gray  plains  of  the  Champagne, 
lightless  and  silent. 

Silent  but  for  the  occasional  boom  of  a  gun 
and  crash  of  a  shell,  now  behind  the  German 
lines,  now  behind  the  Allied  lines.    Just  an  ordi- 


Americas  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      53 

nary  night;  harassing  fire  to  keep  them  stirred 
up  around  the  batteries  and  dumps  and  picket 
lines  so  that  they'd  know  you  were  still  there  and 
still  living.  Here  and  there  an  occasional  rifle- 
shot. Now  and  then  a  rocket  like  the  Earth 
throwing  a  fiery  kiss  to  the  Moon.  No  aero- 
planes, no  bombs  falling;  just  soft  moonlight, 
gentle  breezes  and  the  faint  throb  of  cannon,  like 
the  War-god  breathing  spasmodically  in  his 
sleep. 

General  Gouraud  began  his  barrage  at  eleven 
o'clock.  Until  November  1,  during  the  Argonne- 
Meuse  offensive,  that  chorus  of  guns  held  the 
Allied  record  for  volume  of  sound  and  devastat- 
ing effect.  It  was  timed  to  coincide  with  the 
probable  massing  of  the  German  armies  for  the 
attack,  or  at  least  with  the  manning  of  the  Ger- 
man artillery  for  the  preliminary  bombardment. 

It  paled  the  clear  light  of  the  moon ;  where  the 
guns  were  the  horizon  was  red  as  sunset  with 
their  muzzle  flashes — over  the  German  lines  and 
rear  areas  the  sky  flamed  with  shell  explosions. 
The  Rainbow  men  with  nothing  in  their  war  ex- 
perience except  the  desultory  cannonading  of  the 


54      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Baccarat  sector  came  out  of  dugouts  and  ele- 
phant-backs to  watch  the  spectacle.  When  they 
shouted  to  one  another,  "Great  sight,  ain't  it?** 
they  had  to  shout  through  cupped  hands  directly 
in  a  comrade's  ear. 

They  stood  there  feeling  a  little  sorry  for  the 
enemy  who  had  to  endure  such  punishment;  but 
exultant  to  think  in  what  a  terrible  mess  his  plans 
for  the  night's  work  must  be — artillery  smashed 
before  it  could  get  under  way,  storm  troops  de- 
moralized, ammunition  dumps  going  up.  And 
while  they  thought  these  things  the  world  went 
suddenly  mad  beneath  their  feet  and  hideous 
death  ran  rampant  over  every  foot  of  ground. 

Midnight  had  come  an  hour  earlier  to  the  Ger- 
mans than  it  had  to  the  Allies.  They  had  for- 
gotten that,  some  of  them.  And  some  of  them 
recalled  it  too  late.  It  was  five  minutes  past 
twelve. 

On  a  front  of  forty-two  miles  the  German 
barrage  fell  like  a  blanket.  Like  an  avalanche 
it  swept  upon  the  Allied  positions  and  enveloped 
them  all  everywhere  and  at  once.  It  was  not  a 
fugue  chorus  with  one  gun  beginning  and  others 


^America's  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      55 

coming  in  a  few  at  a  time ;  one  wire  or  one  button 
seemed  to  have  started  them  all. 

For  most  of  the  soldiers  at  their  dugout  doors 
watching  their  own  barrage  with  pleasurable  awe 
there  was  but  one  move  possible — a  dive  like  a 
"slide  to  second,"  into  the  nearest  hole  in  the 
ground.  And  not  even  that  always  saved  them. 
There  was  death  and  destruction  in  the  very  air; 
it  seemed  to  be  reaching  out  with  hungry,  clutch- 
ing hands,  sweeping  victims  in;  the  sky  swished 
and  swirled  like  a  hurricane,  bringing  a  rain  that 
burst  with  a  red  crash  when  it  landed,  and  the 
clean  night  breeze  became  a  deadly  draft  of  poi- 
sonous gas. 

It  dwarfed  the  French- American  barrage  in 
sound;  swallowed  it  up  like  a  shark  swallowing 
a  sea-bass.  For  years  to  come  Americans  who 
lived  under  it  will  shake  their  heads  and  fail  for 
words  when  you  talk  of  the  first  part  of  that 
night  in  the  Champagne.  Only  the  first  Ger- 
man offensive  on  the  Somme  in  1918  rivaled  that 
bombardment;  the  attack  on  Verdun  in  1916, 
compared  to  it,  was  mere  harassing. 

It   continued   without   abatement   until   four 


56      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

o'clock  in  the  morning.  Then  it  seemed  to  lift  for 
a  moment,  to  lessen  in  violence.  The  German  in- 
fantry was  coming,  six  first-class  divisions 
strong,  in  the  first  assault ;  a  Guard  Cavalry  Di- 
vision, the  Second  Bavarian  Division,  the  88th, 
the  First,  the  Seventh  and  the  First  Bavarians. 
They  had  just  come  up  after  two  weeks'  rest^ 
previous  to  which  they  had  held  this  same  sector 
and  studied  every  foot  of  the  ground.  Of  the 
six,  one  was  attacking  the  left  where  the  New 
Yorkers  and  Ohioans  were ;  three  were  attacking 
the  center  held  entirely  by  the  French,  and  two 
were  on  the  right  to  drive  back  the  Alabamians 
and  lowans. 

They  were  the  pick  of  General  von  Einem's 
Third  Army  and  for  all  the  demoralizing  effect 
of  the  Allied  fire,  which  had  started  before 
theirs  and  continued  with  scarcely  lessened  vigor, 
they  came  on  across  No-Man's-Land  in  superb 
form.  They  were  Prussians,  most  of  them,  and 
it  was  a  Prussian  boast  that  no  troops  could  at- 
tack in  such  close  formation  as  theirs. 

But  the  Allied  front  line  was  deserted.  Eager 
to  come  to  a  stand-up  fight,  the  Germans  kept 


'America's  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      57 

on  and  on,  and  found  nobody  to  fight;  nothing 
but  mines  that  roared  up  beneath  their  feet,  and 
thick  gas  clouds  and  shells  tearing  great  holes  in 
their  ranks.  And  in  little  torn  forests  of  wire  the 
men  of  the  French  sacrifice  companies  now  came 
out  of  their  holes  like  small  swarms  of  angry  bees 
and  stung  them  with  bursts  of  machine-gun  fire. 

And  now,  too,  Gouraud  called  another  bit  of 
strategy  into  play;  orders  to  fire  came  to  gun- 
ners who  had  been  out  of  range  of  the  German 
artillery  when  the  bombardment  had  started, 
but  who  were  now  within  range  of  the  advancing 
German  infantry.  Direct  hits  from  high  explo- 
sive shells  began  piling  into  the  German  attack- 
ers. But  still  they  kept  on,  thousands  more 
climbing  over  heaps  of  bodies  to  fill  the  gaps. 
And  finally,  by  sheer  disregard  of  losses,  they 
came  to  the  intermediate  line — the  Allies'  first 
real  line  of  defense. 

It  may  never  be  accurately  known  whether  the 
Germans  reached  the  left  or  the  right  of  the  line 
first,  and  it  makes  little  difference  since  they 
gained  no  more  at  one  side  than  they  did  at  the 
other.    But  it  is  fairly  certain  that  they  came  in 


58      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

greater  force  at  the  right  because  just  in  front 
of  the  Alabamians  and  lowans  were  the  splin- 
tered tree-trunks  of  what  had  been  a  small  forest, 
offering  protection  of  a  sort  to  the  advance  on 
that  wing.    Trouble  had  been  expected  there. 

The  second  battalion  of  the  167th  had  had  no 
shelter  during  the  German  bombardment  except 
what  the  trenches  afforded,  which  was  almost  no 
shelter  at  all.  But  the  men  had  been  spread  out 
thinly,  and  shells  when  they  were  direct  hits  on 
the  parapets  did  a  minimum  of  damage.  Morale, 
sky-high  before  midnight  with  Gouraud's  stir- 
ring words  and  the  sense  of  the  greatness  of  it 
all,  had  slumped  a  bit  under  the  terrible  German 
fire,  but  now  that  that  was  over  it  mounted  again 
with  a  leap.  The  "Wild  Men  from  Alabama" 
were  ready. 

They  were  in  four  companies,  G  and  H  on  the 
right  of  the  Chalons  road,  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain Thomas  F.  Goerg  and  Captain  Herman  W. 
Thompson,  and  E  and  F  on  the  left  of  the  road 
commanded  by  Lieutenant  Raymond  R.  Brown 
and  Captain  Frederick  L.  Wyatt.  The  com- 
mander of  the  Second  Battalion  was  Captain 


America's  Rainhotv  Turns  the  Tide      55 

Everett  H.  Jackson.  The  position  took  in  the 
crests  of  two  gentle  slopes  with  a  little  valley 
between,  and  the  slopes  were  strewn  with  ol^ 
tree-stumps  and  scrubby  little  pines. 

Some  man  in  G  Company  saw  the  Germans 
first;  he  had  crawled  up  to  watch  them  coming 
and  he  saw  one  particular  Boche  before  he  saw 
the  others.  He  was  a  monstrous  big  fellow, 
walking  almost  upright.  "Good  Gawd!" 
chuckled  the  Alabama  man.  "Look  at  the  size  o* 
that  guy,  will  you?  Ah'm  gon'  to  get  him  right 
now!" 

He  did,  and  when  his  rifle  cracked  the  Ameri- 
cans opened  up  all  along  the  right  of  the  line. 
All  the  Germans  who  could  dropped  into  com- 
municating trenches  and  continued  sneaking  for- 
ward under  cover.  From  then  on  no  American 
in  that  part  of  the  fight  remembers  very  clearly 
what  happened,  except  in  his  own  particular 
little  patch  of  ground.  Then  and  there  the  Bat- 
tle of  the  Champagne  became  a  rough-and- 
tumble  fight  with  bare  knives — ^man  against  man; 
with  knives,  fists,  teeth  and  rifle-butts. 

The  Germans,  expecting,  as  orders  on  cap* 


60      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

tured  prisoners  showed,  to  reach  the  town  of 
Suippes  by  noon  of  July  15,  and  Chalons  by  four 
o'clock  of  the  next  day,  ran  into  a  stabbing  aif  ray 
within  the  first  few  minutes.  That  is  what  it  was 
in  the  Alabama  trenches — a  tremendous  stabbing 
affray,  with  men  cutting  and  slashing  and  jab- 
bing at  each  other;  with  no  time  to  gloat  or  to  be 
sorry  over  a  victim  or  to  rest,  because  there  was 
more  killing  to  do.  In  the  Baccarat  sector  the 
167th  had  started  a  reputation  for  wild,  unrea- 
soning courage ;  in  the  Battle  of  the  Champagne 
they  completed  it. 

In  one  of  those  faded  little  field-messages, 
scribbled  with  a  stub  of  hard  pencil  with  scarcely 
any  point,  Capt.  Julien  M.  Strassberger,  com- 
manding the  167th's  machine-gun  company,  sup- 
porting Companies  E  and  F,  wrote  at  eight- 
thirty  a.m.,  and  sent  it  to  the  Battalion  Com- 
mander. 

"Boche  dead  piled  around  here  sky-high.  lis 
ne  passer ont  pas!" 

But  the  fate  of  the  right  of  the  line  began  to 
hang  in  the  balance.  German  tanks  had  been 
able  to  get  up  here  and  the  Allied  artillery  was 


^Americas  Bainhow  Turns  the  Tide      61 

not  having  the  destructive  effect  that  it  had  in 
the  center  and  on  the  left.  The  Maryland 
Trench-Mortar  Battery,  manning  their  little 
guns  out  there  on  ground  the  Boche  was  now 
crossing,  had  fired  seven  hundred  and  fifty  bomhs 
during  the  morning,  scoring  direct  hits  on  four 
tanks  and  putting  them  out  of  action.  Seven 
more  tanks  had  crawled  through  and  were  lum- 
bering down  the  valley  between  the  two  slopes. 
The  37  millimeter  guns  of  the  167th  put  them 
all  out  of  action. 

Machine-guns  were  spraying  the  Germans, 
hand-grenades  bursting  in  groups  of  them,  rifles 
were  spitting  at  them  from  the  parapets,  but  still 
they  came  on.  And  when  the  peril  of  the  right 
wing  seemed  very  real  and  the  Germans  were 
piling  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  faster  than  they 
were  dying,  the  Alabamians  made  the  first 
counter-attack. 

No  more  splendid  exhibition  of  reckless,  in- 
domitable courage  was  produced  in  the  whole  war 
than  this  counter-attack  on  the  proud  Prussian 
troops  by  the  Americans  from  the  sunny  South- 
land.   No  Americans  had  ever  done  it  before. 


62      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

The  Alabamians  went  in  by  platoons,  winding 
through  the  trenches,  crawling  over  heaps  of  dead 
French,  Americans  and  Germans,  and  labyrinths 
of  tangled  wire,  into  the  melee.  Of  the  first 
platoon  none  ever  came  back.  By  the  time  a 
company  of  French  reinforcements  arrived  with 
orders  to  retake  two  lost  positions,  Lieut.  Hoxie 
Fairchild,  with  an  E  Company  platoon,  had 
already  retaken  them.  The  French,  with  another 
platoon  under  Lieut.  M.  L,  Marklin,  retook  a 
third. 

Thus  they  were  still  fighting  while  the  sun 
rose  high  and  the  air  grew  warm  and  the  day 
advanced,  and  the  first  shock  of  the  last  German 
offensive  had  fallen  on  men  who  would  not  yield 
an  inch. 

And  what,  throughout  all  this,  of  the  left  of 
the  line  where  the  old  69th  New  York— "The 
Fighting  Harps" — and  the  old  guardsmen  from 
Ohio  were  holding  on? 

The  third  Battalion  of  the  165th  under  Major 
William  (Wild  Bill)  Donovan  (later  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel), and  the  Second  Battalion,  under 


Americas  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      63 

Major  Alexander  Anderson,  were  over  ther^ 
fighting  like  wild-cats. 

Standing  right  beside  Lieut.  Thomas  M. 
Young  as  the  Germans  came  on,  a  man  had 
been  killed.  Probably  it  was  Sergeant  Tom 
O'Rourke;  he  was  one  of  the  first  New  Yorkers 
killed  in  that  fight.  At  any  rate  Lieut.  Young 
saw  the  German  who  had  killed  him — a  sniper — 
and  within  a  few  minutes  Young  had  killed  the 
German.  He  was  elated.  "Boys,  I  got  my  first 
German!"  he  shouted,  and  the  next  second  a 
grenade  killed  him,  and  the  Boche  were  up  to 
the  wire.  By  noon  they  had  gained  a  foothold 
seven  times  in  the  New  Yorkers'  trenches  and 
seven  times  had  been  hurled  out.  That  evening 
at  six  o'clock  they  tried  it  again  and  were  beaten 
off. 

All  night  bombs  and  shells  fell  on  the  fighting 
lines  and  rear  areas;  steady  showers  of  them  on 
hospitals,  towns  and  roads.  There  was  no  rest 
from  them,  especially  the  bombs.  By  day  the 
sky  was  literally  dark  with  German  aeroplanes; 
every  French  plane  had  been  chased  away. 

The  German  aviators  would  hover  above  the 


64      The  Story  of  the  Rainhotv  Division 

trenches  like  hawks  circling  to  pounce  on  chick- 
ens, then  swooping  low,  cut  loose  with  machine- 
guns  and  showers  of  steel  darts  upon  the  heads 
of  the  infantry.  Carrying  parties  with  ammuni- 
tion had  to  dodge  these  planes  as  they  would 
swarms  of  bees.  Stretcher-bearers  carrying 
wounded  men  through  trenches  and  along  roads 
were  shot  down  by  low-flying  aviators. 

At  six  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  16  the 
Germans  attacked  again  on  the  left,  and  after 
they  had  been  driven  off  for  the  fifth  time  the 
men  of  G  Company,  commanded  by  Capt.  John 
T.  Prout,  were  too  mad  to  stand  still.  Where- 
upon the  second  splendid,  wild  American  charge 
was  made,  as  worthy  of  immortality  as  the 
counter-attack  of  the  Alabamians  on  the  first 
day. 

The  enemy  was  taking  cover  from  American 
rifle  fire  when  Lieut.  Kenneth  C.  Ogle  of  G  Com- 
pany gathered  his  platoon  and  prepared  to  go 
over  the  top  as  soon  as  the  Boche  came  out  of 
hiding.  So  that  when  they  were  coming  toward 
the  old  69th's  trenches  for  the  sixth  time  that 


[Americas  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      65 

morning  they  found  before  them  not  the  blazing 
muzzles  of  rifles,  but  thirty-eight  wild  sons  of 
Erin,  yelling  and  rushing  at  them  with  long,  bare 
bayonets. 

The  Germans  turned  and  fled,  but  the  Ameri- 
cans had  the  better  start,  and  they  caught  and 
bayonetted  twenty-two  without  a  single  casualty 
to  themselves.  With  such  success  they  couldn't 
turn  back,  so  they  kept  on  to  the  old  French  posi- 
tion now  held  by  the  Germans,  but  were  held  off 
by  superior  machine-gun  fire.  On  their  way  back 
they  killed  ofl"  a  party  of  Germans  creeping  up 
an  old  boyau,  and  threw  grenades  into  a  dugout, 
killing  fourteen  more. 

Lieut.  Ellet  of  E  Company,  commanded  by 
Capt.  Charles  D.  Baker,  counter-attacked  with 
his  platoon  under  orders  from  the  French  that 
were  received  at  6 :05,  telling  him  to  attack  at  six 
o'clock.  Ellet  attacked  inmiediately,  despite  the 
possibility  of  heavy  casualties  through  the  mix-up 
in  time,  and  not  only  retook  the  lost  position  but 
captured  twelve  prisoners,  including  an  oflicer. 
Ellet  was  killed  in  the  Argonne  fight. 

The  rest  of  that  day  the  Germans  spent  in 


66      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

desperate  attempts  to  break  through  by  ruses  and 
tricks.  A  bunch  of  them  ran  up  dressed  in 
French  uniforms  (they  had  taken  them  from  the 
dead  out  there  in  the  sacrifice  companies),  and 
got  close  enough  to  throw  grenades  at  a  gun- 
crew of  the  150th  Machine-Gun  Battalion,  kill- 
ing two  Wisconsin  gunners,  and  putting  the  gun 
out  of  action.  Another  Wisconsin  man,  mor- 
tally wounded  but  still  at  his  gun,  drove  them 
away,  and  died  firing.  Later  forty  Germans 
came  up  yelling  "Kamerad!"  with  upraised 
hands.  The  Americans  fired  on  them  at  once, 
and  when  the  Germans  fell,  grenades  wrapped 
in  handkerchiefs  fell  from  their  hands.  Still 
later  a  German  in  a  French  uniform  came  Tun- 
ing toward  the  lines  with  four  others  chasing  him. 
Our  men  were  not  deceived  and  shot  them  all 
down. 

On  the  night  of  July  16  the  Germans  gave  up 
hope,  and  the  hand-to-hand  fighting  ceased.  The 
Allied  line  in  the  Champagne,  though  it  had  bent 
in  and  out  during  the  two  days'  battle,  was  re- 
established with  not  a  foot  of  ground  lost;  the 
German  offensive  had  crumpled  in  the  early 


•Americas  Rainbow  Turns  the  Tide      67 

hours  of  the  first  day.  The  decisive  battle  of  the 
war  had  been  won. 

Now  the  Hun  became  spiteful.  Raging  in 
defeat  he  shelled  the  rear  areas  as  far  back  as 
Chalons,  and  sprinkled  the  earth  with  bombs 
from  the  sky.  Back  there  where  the  ammunition 
and  supplies  had  come  from  and  where  the 
wounded  had  been  carried,  the  scene  was  inde- 
scribable. Dead  horses  lay  everywhere — simply 
spattered  about  the  landscape.  The  big  Ameri- 
can hospital  at  Bussy-le-Chateau  had  been 
wrecked  by  bombs — several  wards  full  of 
wounded  soldiers  destroyed  and  the  men  killed. 
Roads  were  obliterated  for  miles ;  a  blight  seemed 
to  have  descended  on  trees  and  vegetation;  every- 
where within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  the  earth 
was  torn  and  tortured.  But  the  line  had  held ;  the 
bodies  of  Americans  of  the  Rainbow  had  barred 
the  road  to  Chalons;  and  some  were  in  huddled, 
shapeless  heaps  in  the  trenches  and  some  were 
wiping  off  their  bayonets  and  crying. 

Gouraud  talked  to  them  on  the  19th  (the  Rain- 
bow had  been  relieved  the  day  before  by  Moroc- 
can troops) .    In  a  little  field  near  Army  Head- 


68      The  Story  of  the  Eainhow  Division 

quarters,  the  French  General  stood  and  reviewed 
a  battalion  of  the  166th  Infantry  from  Ohio, 
whose  men  had  fought  with  the  New  Yorkers  on 
the  left.  His  empty  left  sleeve  was  in  the  pocket 
of  his  tunic ;  tall  and  erect  like  a  story-book  hero, 
he  moved  with  a  limp — he  had  a  shattered  hip — 
and  his  eyes  burned  like  live  coals. 

With  his  good  arm  behind  his  back  he  stood 
before  what  assemblage  of  Rainbow  officers  it 
had  been  possible  to  gather  and  thanked  them, 
and  through  them,  the  men.  It  was  a  strange 
assemblage;  scrubby-chinned  men,  dirty  and 
torn,  half -blind  and  half -choked  still  with  gas, 
muscles  and  nerves  still  quivering  with  the  long 
fight;  and  staff  officers  whose  painful  attempts 
at  polishing  up  for  the  occasion  were  obvious  and 
soldierly. 

He  said  few  words,  did  Gouraud,  but  they 
were  deep  words.  They  said  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion had  put  a  new  spirit  into  France;  that  be- 
fore the  battle  their  mere  presence  had  been  a 
tonic;  that  their  resistance  during  the  battle  was 
like  a  promise  of  new  life.  And  he  announced 
for  the  first  time  the  successful  launching  of  an 


Americas  Raznbom  Turns  the  Tide      69! 

allied  offensive  between  Soissons  and  Chateau- 
Thierry. 

Officers  who  had  not  slept  for  days — covered 
with  the  dirt  and  blood  of  the  trenches — shouted 
with  joy.  Camps  of  men  just  out  of  the  jaws  of 
death  rang  with  laughter  and  song.  The  tide  of 
war  had  turned.  The  French  celebrated  their 
Fourteenth  of  July  on  July  19,  and  champagne 
ran  like  water. 

But  they  say  that  Sergeant  Lawrence  Quigley, 
a  Minneapolis  man  in  D  Battery,  151st  Minne- 
sota Artillery,  had  no  part  in  the  rejoicing.  His 
gun — ^his  beautiful  gun,  "Mary  Ann" — that  he 
had  been  firing  steadily  for  seventy-two  hours, 
had  gone  out  of  commission  during  the  last  few 
minutes,  and  he  was  weepmg  like  a  baby. 


CHAPTER  y 

THE      EAINBOW'S      FIRST      ATTACK — ^ACROSS      THE 
BLOODY  OURCQ 

Paris  was  alive  with  the  two  great  pieces  of 
news  of  that  decisive  month  of  July,  1918 — the 
successful  defense  before  Chalons  and  the  Allied 
advance  before  Soissons.  The  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion, defenders  of  the  Champagne,  tasted  swiftly 
of  the  rewards  of  heroes  as  they  rolled  through 
Noisy-le-sec,  and  passed  on  to  more  fighting. 

Coming  by  rail  from  Chalons  where  long- 
range  artillery  reached  hungrily  even  after  the 
moving  train,  the  Division,  in  order  to  come  to 
La-Ferte-sous-Jouarre,  had  to  go  close  to  Paris, 
for  the  Germans  were  in  Chateau- Thierry. 

Noisy-le-sec  is  a  suburb  of  Paris.  The  long 
trains  that  carried  the  Rainbow  rolled  through 
there  between  July  21  and  24.  It  was  a  beauti- 
ful day — warm  and  mellow — and  wherever  they 

70 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  71 

could  find  holds  for  hands  and  feet,  the  men  clung 
to  open  flat-cars,  taking  the  air.  Bridges  across 
the  railroad  yards  were  crowded  with  Parisians, 
mostly  women  and  girls.  For  nearly  four  years 
they  had  had  no  chance  to  celebrate  a  victory, 
but  now  they  had  one,  and  here,  within  sound  of 
their  voices,  were  the  Americans  who  had  stopped 
the  Germans  in  the  Champagne. 

They  cheered  wildly  and  threw  kisses  and 
flowers  at  the  men  in  olive-drab.  The  men 
cheered  back ;  their  spirits  had  returned,  they  had 
seen  the  worst  of  war;  there  was  nothing  they 
could  not  tackle  now.  It  was  good  to  be  alive 
on  this  warm  July  morning  with  Paris  cheering 
you  as  a  conquering  hero.  This  was  the  "sort 
of  stufi^  you  read  about." 

It  was  thus  the  Rainbow  Division  went  toward 
the  Aisne-Marne  Offensive  for  what  was  to  be 
the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  outfit's  history.  For 
at  this  stage  of  the  war  it  was  "Push  while  the 
pushing  is  good,"  and  no  division  of  soldiers  with 
such  reputations  as  the  Rainbow  for  steadfast- 
ness and  valor  could  be  permitted  to  rest  while 
there  were  such  possibilities  of  getting  the  Boche 


72      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

on  the  run,  not  even  when  that  division  had  been 
in  actual  combat  without  rest  since  midwinter. 

On  July  24-25  it  was  moving  by  camion  from 
LarFerte-sous- Jouarre  to  the  vicinity  of  fipieds. 

The  general  situation  around  the  beautiful 
Marne  valley,  which  the  men  of  the  Rainbow 
were  now  seeing  for  the  first  time,  was  this : 

When  the  Germans  had  broken  through  in 
May  and  June  they  had  been  finally  stopped 
at  the  Marne.  Their  gains  from  Rheims  to 
Chateau-Thierry  and  to  Soissons  made  a  salient 
reaching  out  and  threatening  Paris.  The  Ger- 
man offensive  of  July  15,  that  the  Rainbow  had 
just  helped  to  stop,  had  extended  down  the  east 
side  of  this  salient  to  Chateau-Thierry.  Down 
there  the  American  Third  Division,  supported 
by  the  28th — Pennsylvania  National  Guards- 
men— ^had  opposed  a  crossing  east  of  Chateau- 
Thierry  and  confined  the  Boche  to  a  gain  of  a 
few  miles  near  Fossoy. 

And  now,  with  that  drive  definitely  halted. 
Marshal  Foch,  on  July  18,  had  opened  an  attack 
on  both  sides  and  at  the  point  of  the  Chateau- 
Thierry  salient.    The  Germans  had  gotten  them- 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  73* 

selves  into  a  pocket;  they  had  tried  to  broaden 
it  and  deepen  it  and  failed.  The  Day  of  the 
Allies  had  come. 

The  First  and  Second  American  Divisions  had 
made  a  surprise  attack  south  of  Soissons.  The 
Fourth  Division  had  exerted  some  pressure  on 
the  western  side  near  Lizy.  The  enemy  recrossed 
the  River  Marne  before  he  was  attacked  by  the 
Fourth  Division,  which  followed  him  for  eight 
kilometers,  side  by  side  with  the  26th  (Yankee)' 
Division.  The  26th  made  the  pivotal  attack 
north  of  Chateau-Thierry.  The  rest  of  the  at- 
tacking troops  were  French,  with  a  few  British 
divisions  south  of  and  close  to  Rheims. 

It  is  likely  that  after  the  reverse  of  July  15  in 
the  Champagne,  Ludendorff  realized  that  the 
Chateau- Thierry  salient  was  a  menace  to  his 
army.  But  Foch  had  realized  it  quicker  than  he ; 
vast  quantities  of  stores  had  piled  up  in  there  for 
use  in  the  advance  on  Paris,  and  they  could  not 
be  removed  and  the  salient  evacuated  before  the 
Allies  were  upon  him. 

As  the  pocket  shrunk  under  Foch's  pressure 
the  fronts  of  the  fighting  forces  narrowed ;  it  be- 


74      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

came  practicable  to  take  out  of  the  line  divisions 
that  had  been  leading  the  attack.  So  the  26th 
American  Division  and  the  167th  French  Divi- 
sion came  out  for  a  rest,  and  the  Rambow  took 
over  the  job  that  both  of  them  had  been  handling. 

The  84th  Infantry  Brigade,  under  Brigadier- 
General  Robert  A.  Brown,  took  the  sector  of  the 
26th  Division,  and  the  83rd  Infantry  Brigade, 
under  Brigadier-General  Michael  J.  Lenihan, 
took  the  167th  Division's  sector.  The  84th  Bri- 
gade, with  the  168th  (Iowa)  and  167th  (Ala- 
bama) Infantry  regiments,  had  the  right  of  the 
divisional  line,  and  the  83rd  Brigade,  with  the 
165th  (New  York)  and  166th  (Ohio)  regiments, 
had  the  left. 

The  artillery  of  the  26th  Division  stayed  in 
position  to  work  with  the  67th  Artillery  Brigade 
of  the  Rainbow,  conmianded  by  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral George  G.  Gatley. 

Coming  up  for  the  relief  on  July  24,  the  Rain- 
bow Division  had  marched  to  within  two  kilo- 
meters of  the  front  line.  Seeking  for  the  point 
where  they  were  to  establish  the  Post  of  Com- 
mand for  the  168th  regiment.  Colonel  Bennett, 


The  RainhoW'S  First  Attach  75 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Tinley,  and  the  regimental 
adjutant.  Captain  Van  Order,  performed  that 
day  the  novel  feat  of  riding  around  No-Man's- 
Land  in  an  automobile. 

They  didn't  do  it  purposely.  This  had  not 
been  a  quiet  sector  like  the  sectors  the  Rainbow 
were  familiar  with ;  the  landscape  lacked  the  es- 
tablished institutions  of  rusty  brown  camouflage 
screens,  old  trench  systems  and  fields  of  barbed 
wire.  So  the  Colonel,  the  Lieutenant- Colonel 
and  the  adjutant,  looking  for  woods  where  the 
"P.  C."  would  be,  suddenly  found  themselves  in 
the  neighborhood  of  new  trenches.  And  when 
they  had  oriented  themselves  it  dawned  upon 
them  that  they  were  looking  upon  those  trenches 
from  the  wrong  side.  They  got  back  without 
waste  motion  and  discovered  they  had  gone  about 
a  kilometer  too  far  to  the  north. 

This  time  the  Rainbow  Division  found  its  work 
cut  out  for  it.  So  to  speak,  it  was  getting  up 
into  the  war's  higher  seats  of  learning,  having 
left  behind  the  stand-pattism  of  the  Luneville 
and  Baccarat  sectors  and  the  plain,  old-fashioned 
doggedness  of  the  Champagne.     Now  its  job 


76      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

was  not  merely  to  hold  what  ground  it  had  but 
to  get  more ;  not  merely  to  outfight  the  Germans 
but  to  outwit  them — to  demonstrate  that  they 
knew  more  about  driving  the  Boche  back  than 
the  Boche  knew  about  standing  fast.  Instead  of 
defending,  they  were  now  to  attack. 

And  directly  in  front  of  the  167th  and  168th 
Infantry  regiments,  as  the  Rainbow  took  over 
the  job  from  the  Yankee  Division  and  the 
French,  lay  the  Boche  in  one  of  the  finest  little 
nests  in  France.  They  called  it  La  Croix  Rouge 
Farm ;  it  was  in  a  clearing  surrounded  by  forests 
on  four  sides,  and  a  road  ran  diagonally  through 
it  from  southeast  to  northwest.  The  far  side  of 
the  road  was  lined  with  German  machine-guns; 
the  woods  on  three  sides  were  lined  with  them, 
and  you  couldn't  see  them. 

The  division  completed  all  its  dispositions  dur- 
ing the  day  and  night  of  July  25,  and  without 
wasting  a  moment  of  time  the  168th  attacked  La 
Croix  Rouge  Farm  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
26th. 

Two  platoons  of  F  Company,  commanded  by 
Capt.  Charles  J.  Casey,  took  it.     They  discov- 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  77 

ered  a  little  ditch  leading  up  to  it,  and,  sneaking 
through  this  in  the  morning  mists,  surprised  the 
Germans,  killed  or  captured  them  and  turned  the 
machine-guns  eastward  upon  the  enemy  in  the 
woods. 

All  that  afternoon  the  wooded  slopes  around 
La  Croix  Rouge  Farm  formed  the  ring  in  which 
a  terrific  battle  went  on.  The  men  of  the  Rain- 
bow— Alabamians  on  the  left  of  the  farm  and 
lowans  on  the  right — ^had  their  first  experience 
with  those  withering  blasts  of  machine-gun  fire 
with  which  the  German  Army  protected  its 
masterly  retreat  during  all  the  days  that  fol- 
lowed. 

The  morale  of  the  Boche  was  still  high — as 
high  as  ever,  in  fact.  While  von  Ludendorff 
would  have  liked  to  withdraw  from  the  Chateau- 
Thierry  pocket  at  his  own  will,  taking  his  sup- 
plies with  him,  he  was  nevertheless  prepared  to 
try  to  delay  even  a  dashing  American  effort  to 
drive  him  out.  And  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  his  preparation  was  the  machine-gun — hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  machine-guns — with  men 
behind  them  who  knew  the  weapon  and  had  high 


78      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

confidence  in  it  and  no  small  amount  of  courage 
in  handling  it. 

These  things  the  battle  for  La  Croix  Rouge 
Farm  taught  the  Rainbow  Division  at  the  outset 
of  its  participation  in  the  Aisne-Marne  Offensive. 
These  things  it  had  impressed  upon  it  again  and 
again — hour  after  hour  in  blood  and  death — 
while  it  struggled  for  new  footholds  always 
farther  northward,  through  yellow  wheat-fields 
where  death  lurked  and  over  ridges  whose  crim- 
son hue  at  evening  was  not  always  of  the  sunset. 

The  Rainbow  gave  ground  that  26th  of  July, 
gave  up  La  Croix  Rouge  Farm  deliberately  and 
retired,  and  it  was  not  the  lesser  part  of  valor 
that  they  did.  This  new  thing,  this  machine-gun 
resistance,  was  dawning  on  them;  to  capture  a 
place  and  to  be  basking  in  contentment,  and  then 
to  discover  that  there  was  no  contentment  be- 
cause just  beyond  was  the  German  with  his  ma- 
chine-guns and  their  newly-won  prize  was  his 
field  of  fire.  Always  it  must  be  on,  and  on,  and 
on,  with  no  end  in  sight  except  death  for  the  Ger- 
mans or  for  them. 

But  that  night  the  Germans  evacuated  La 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attach  70 

Croix  Rouge  Farm  for  the  second  time.  It  was 
the  key  to  the  position  on  that  line,  and  finding  it 
too  hot  to  hold  they  retired  nearly  six  kilometers 
to  a  new  defensive  line  across  the  Ourcq  River. 

Here  was  a  new  situation — an  unpleasant  one. 
True,  the  enemy  had  given  up  six  kilometers,  but 
now  he  was  in  a  great  natural  fortress,  with  the 
village  of  Sergy  in  the  valley  backed  by  bare  hills 
that  sloped  up  to  plateaus  eighty  meters  high.  On 
the  east  there  was  flank  protection  for  the  Ger- 
mans in  groups  of  small  woodlands,  and  there 
was  flank  protection  on  the  west  in  a  small  creek 
called  the  Ru  du  Pont  Brule.  Meurcy  Farm 
and  more  woodland  lay  in  the  valley  of  this  creek 
near  its  junction  with  the  Ourcq,  and  farther  up 
the  creek  was  the  village  and  chateau  of  Nesles, 
Farther  to  the  right  the  village  of  Scringes  com- 
manded Meurcy  Farm  and  the  Forest  of  Nesles 
was  behind  the  village  of  that  name. 

It  was  the  tried,  veteran  army  of  Imperial 
Germany  fighting  desperately  near  the  end  of  its 
fourth  year  of  superhuman  effort  and  ideally 
situated  for  defense,  against  the  new,  untried 
soldiers  from  the  United  States,  who  had  no  ad- 


80      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

vantages  except  freshness  in  the  general  matter 
of  war,  and  not  much  of  that,  considering  the 
gruelling  struggle  in  the  Champagne.  But  the 
Rainbow  Division  went  to  it. 

Over  the  six  kilometers  the  Germans  had  given 
up  after  evacuating  La  Croix  Rouge  Farm  the 
division  moved  with  little  trouble,  disposing  eas- 
ily of  sacrifice  detachments  of  machine-gunners 
left  behind  to  delay  the  advance.  Only  at  La 
Croix  Blanche  Farm,  northeast  of  La  Croix 
Rouge  Farm,  was  there  anything  much  resem- 
bling a  battle.  On  the  night  of  July  27th,  the 
division  regained  contact  with  the  enemy's  new 
line.  Machine-gun  fire  from  the  north  bank  of 
the  Ourcq  fell  upon  armored  cars  that  were  re- 
connoitering  ahead  of  the  infantry,  and  the  col- 
unms  halted  for  the  night  about  a  kilometer  south 
of  the  little  river. 

At  dawn  next  morning  the  fight  to  cross  the 
Ourcq  began.  The  Germans  had  blown  up  two 
bridges  near  Sergy ;  the  stream  was  swollen  with 
rains  to  a  width  of  fourteen  meters  and  a  depth 
of  four,  and  the  men  had  to  struggle  through  the 
little  torrent.     Machine  guns  opened  on  them 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  81 

from  Sergy  directly  in  front  and  Meurcy  Farm 
on  the  flank  and  the  stream  ran  red  with  the 
blood  of  the  Rainbow, 

The  men  of  New  York's  old  69th,  commanded 
then  by  Colonel  Frank  McCoy,  got  the  first  foot- 
hold on  the  opposite  bank  and  before  noon  the 
other  four  regiments  were  coming  over,  Ohioans 
of  the  166th  on  the  extreme  left,  New  Yorkers 
next,  then  the  Alabamians  of  the  167th,  and  on 
the  extreme  right  the  168th  from  Iowa. 

The  struggle  for  Sergy  and  Meurcy  Farm 
lasted  all  that  day,  all  night  and  throughout  the 
morning  of  July  29th.  Once  on  the  enemy's 
side  of  the  Ourcq,  Colonel  Screws'  men  from 
Alabama  and  Colonel  Bennett's  men  from  Iowa 
rushed  Sergy  and  took  it.  They  were  swept 
back  to  the  river  bank  by  machine-gun  blasts 
from  the  woods  on  the  left.  They  rallied, 
rushed  the  village  again,  and  this  time  ran  into 
one  of  the  best  divisions  in  the  German  Army, 
the  Fourth  Prussian  Guards. 

Americans  who  were  at  home  then  will  remem- 
ber the  thrilling  message  of  M.  Andre  Tardieu 
— "Today"  (or  words  to  that  effect)  "American 


82      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

soldiers  met  and  defeated  on  the  River  Ourcq 
the  best  troops  of  the  Prussian  Guard."  Amer- 
ican troops  did  defeat  the  best  troops  of  the  Prus- 
sian Guard  and  it  was  of  this  battle  and  of  the 
Rainbow  Division  that  M.  Tardieu  spoke  that 
day. 

They  defeated  the  Prussians  but  at  what 
seemed  then  a  terrible  cost.  Throughout  the 
whole  of  July  28th,  the  lines  rolled  back  and 
forth.  Now  the  Americans  had  Sergy ;  now  the 
Germans  had  it.  To  the  right  the  28th  Divi- 
sion fought  for  Hill  220;  to  the  left  the  83rd 
Brigade  of  the  Rainbow  struggled  for  Meurcy 
Farm. 

Again,  as  in  Champagne,  the  Rainbow  had  to 
fight  an  air-battle  as  well  as  a  ground  battle. 
Swarms  of  German  combat  planes  were  over 
them  constantly,  darting  earthward  and  firing 
machine-guns  into  them.  All  Allied  planes 
seemed  to  have  been  driven  from  the  sky;  Ger- 
man air  supremacy  seemed  complete.  But  as 
the  Champagne  had  produced  Corporal  Doty 
of  the  165th,  as  a  stalker  of  bird-men,  so  the  Bat- 
tle of  the  Ourcq  produced  a  "ground-ace"  in  Ser- 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attach  83 

geant  Frank  Gardello,  Jr.,  of  the  same  regi- 
ment's machine-gun  company,  who  brought  down 
two  planes  with  one  burst. 

Both  were  flying  low,  one  directly  over  the 
other.  Gardello's  fire  riddled  the  upper  one  and 
when  he  fell  he  landed  squarely  on  the  lower  one. 
Both  aviators  were  killed.  Never  before  or  since 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  war,  was  a  similar 
feat  performed. 

It  was  growing  dusk  on  July  28th  when  the 
Alabamians  and  lowans  rushed  Sergy  for  the 
last  time  that  day — and  held  it.  The  German 
artillery  shelled  it  savagely  all  night  and  clouds 
of  bombing  planes  circled  around  and  around  it, 
dropping  tons  of  bombs,  but  the  Rainbows  hud- 
dled closer  and  closer  behind  ruined  house-walls, 
and  stuck. 

Then  early  in  the  morning  of  the  29th  the 
Prussian  Guard  returned  to  the  battle  and  in  a 
final  desperate  charge  drove  the  doughboys  out 
of  Sergy  for  the  seventh  time;  drove  them  back 
to  the  banks  of  the  Ourcq.  Thus  after  two  days 
of  fighting  after  the  German  retirement  from  La 
Croix  Rouge  Farm,  the  Rainbow  had  made  no 


84      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

permanent  gains  and  its  casualties  had  been 
heavy.  Meurcy  Farm,  Sergy  and  Hill  220  were 
still  German  strongholds,  commanded  by  ma- 
chine-guns in  other  German  strongholds  farther 
on.     Something  had  to  be  done. 

The  thing  that  was  done  was  the  thing  that, 
more  than  any  other  one  battle  move,  broke  the 
morale  of  the  German  army  and  bade  fair,  later 
on  to  turn  its  splendid  rear-guard  action  into  a 
rout. 

The  Rainbow  Division,  having  fought  nothing 
but  stand-up  fights  against  a  foe  who  could  either 
be  bayoneted  or  sniped,  entered  the  battle  of  the 
Ourcq  knowing  nothing  of  the  Boches'  perfection 
in  machine-gun  defense.  The  Germans  simply 
**had  the  reach  on  them."  No  soldiers  in  the 
world  were  more  willing  than  the  AAericans  to 
come  to  close  quarters  with^the  enemy  and  fight 
it  out  with  bayonets.  The  difficulty  the  Rain- 
bow was  finding  here  on  the  Ourcq  was  in  get- 
ting to  close  quarters  without  being  killed  or  dis- 
abled. Rushing  through  the  open  up  to  the  con- 
cealed German  machine-guns  in  the  hope  of 
frightening  the  gunners  into  surrender,  or  of 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  85 

catching  them  off  their  guard,  was  sheer  suicide. 
That  was  now  certain. 

So  then  and  there  the  Rainbow  conceived  and 
launched  a  typically  American  style  of  attack; 
launched  it  as  extemporaneously  as  a  great  ora- 
tor in  the  heat  of  a  debate  launches  an  immortal 
phrase.  It  claims  no  credit  for  having  orig- 
inated it.  In  one  form  or  another  the  American 
divisions  who  had  fought  in  Belleau  Wood  and 
up  to  La  Croix  Rouge  Farm  and  before  Sois- 
sons  had  used  the  same  method  of  capturing 
German  machine-gun  nests.  But  the  Rainbow 
knew  nothing  about  that.  It  had  had  no  school- 
ing in  such  work.  Without  time  for  either  rest 
or  schooling  it  had  come  from  a  sector  of  patrols 
and  raids  to  a  sector  of  defense  and  from  there 
directly  to  a  sector  of  offense,  and  what  it  learned 
it  had  to  learn  by  bitter,  costly  experience. 

What  it  did  now,  with  Sergy,  Meurcy  Farm, 
Scringes,  Hill  220  and  the  whole  line  of  other 
flank  positions  still  in  German  hands  after  nearly 
two  days  of  fighting,  was  an  inspiration  born  of 
desperation;  the  grim,  determined  desperation 


86      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

of  baffled  men  bound  to  beat  an  opponent  at  his 
own  game  if  it  takes  a  lifetime. 

On  the  morning  of  the  29th  the  entire  Rain- 
bow Division  made  a  general  attack,  not  only 
upon  Sergy  and  Meurcy  Farm  but  upon  the  pla- 
teau between.  It  was  not  a  rush  this  time;  it 
was  a  painfully  slow  crawl.  German  machine- 
guns  blazed  from  fields  of  tall,  yellow  wheat  on 
top  of  the  plateau.  Then  from  the  tall  grass  a 
brown  streak  would  suddenly  shoot  ahead  for  a 
yard  or  two  and  disappear  from  view  while  the 
German  guns  blazed  at  it.  A  moment  of  quiet, 
then  off  to  the  left  another  brown  streak  and  a 
burst  of  bullets  from  the  wheat.  Then  in  the 
center  another,  then  another  to  the  right,  until  a 
half-dozen  men  were  headed  toward  that  single 
German  machine-gun,  advancing  in  quick  dives, 
now  left,  now  right,  now  center;  and  whenever  a 
man  dived  a  volley  of  rifles  from  his  comrades  an- 
swered the  stutter  of  the  machine-gun. 

And  soon — though  it  might  be  a  half  hour  or 
an  hour  and  though  a  sheaf  of  bullets  might  have 
caught  one  of  those  brown  streaks  in  midair  so 
that  it  never  dived  again — a  little  ring  of  men  in 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  87 

olive-drab  would  be  around  that  machine-gun 
nest,  and  *'a  kill"  would  be  on. 

One  by  one  the  German  machine-gun  nests 
grew  silent.  As  the  day  waned  the  clatter  of 
them,  like  the  clatter  of  rivetting  hammers,  came 
from  farther  and  farther  to  the  north.  The 
lowans  took  Sergy.  They  got  some  machine- 
guns  to  a  near  crest  of  Hill  220,  from  which  they 
could  fire  into  the  German  nests  in  the  Arbre  les 
Jomblets  and  the  Bois  de  Planchette. 

Here  on  Hill  220,  Sergeant  B.  W.  Hamilton 
of  M  Company,  168th  Infantry,  wounded  while 
out  ahead  of  his  own  line,  was  attacked  by  ten 
Prussian  Guardsmen.  He  shot  five  and  the  rest 
ran  away. 

The  Alabamians  got  well  on  toward  the  top  of 
the  plateau,  and  the  165th,  unsuccessful  at 
Meurcy  Farm  with  the  new  "Indian  method"  of 
attack  on  machine-guns,  called  for  a  long  con- 
centration of  artillery  fire  on  the  place;  and 
finally  their  Irish  tempers  got  the  best  of  them 
and  they  went  at  it  with  their  bayonets  as  they 
had  gone  over  the  top  in  the  Champagne.    They 


88      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

killed  the  German  machine-gunners  in  hand-to- 
hand  fighting. 

In  the  afternoon  Colonel  Hough's  men  of  the 
166th  Ohio  regiment  stormed  Seringes  on  its 
high,  bare  hill.  It  was  a  gallant  charge  across 
twelve  hundred  meters  of  ground  entirely  with- 
out cover  while  machine-gun  nests  flanked  it  and 
heavy  fire  came  from  the  village.  Instead  of 
taking  it  by  direct  attack  the  Ohioans  worked 
around  it  and  took  Hill  184  to  the  northwest. 
From  there  they  silenced  the  machine-guns  in 
Seringes  and  then  went  down  and  bayoneted  the 
gunners  who  were  left. 

It  was  shortly  after  this,  you  will  remember, 
that  stories  became  current  about  Germans  be- 
ing found  chained  to  their  machine-guns  in  the 
woods.  There  also  began  coming,  from  German 
sources,  stories  of  inhuman  cruelty  of  American 
soldiers.  There  had  been  many  other  stories 
theretofore,  bearing  on  the  inhuman  treatment 
of  German  soldiers  by  their  officers,  and  there 
had  been  much  German  propaganda  intended  to 
counteract  stories  of  German  fiendishness  and 
cruelty. 


The  Rainhow's  First  Attack  89! 

But  behind  those  stories  in  those  days  of  late 
July  and  early  August,  1918,  was  something 
more  than  propaganda.  There  was  looming  up 
in  the  German  army  a  feeling  of  terror  of  these 
quick,  forward-moving  men  in  olive-drab,  who 
were  not  afraid  even  of  the  wonderful  German 
machine-guns,  but  who  dived  and  wriggled 
toward  them  and  were  suddenly  all  around  them 
in  desperate  little  rings. 

German  gunners  were  being  chained  to  their 
guns;  it  was  becoming  necessary.  And  since 
men  at  bay  will  always  fight  for  their  lives,  the 
fights  around  the  machine-gun  nests  in  the  Bat- 
tle of  the  Ourcq  were  nearly  always  fights  to  the 
death.  The  Rainbow  Division  took  few  prison- 
ers in  that  battle;  its  record  of  prisoners  cap- 
tured throughout  the  war  falls  short  of  the  rec- 
ords of  one  or  two  other  divisions;  it  usually 
fought  to  kill.  That  was  the  cruelty  of  which 
the  Germans  spoke. 

With  this  advance  of  the  Rainbow  through  the 
first  of  the  Ourcq's  great  defenses,  the  German 
High  Command,  too,  became  alarmed  for  the 
dignity    of   its   retirement   from   the    Chateau- 


90      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Thierry  Salient.  It  began  putting  in  reserves. 
Opposite  the  Rainbow  there  was  now  from  left 
to  right,  the  10th  Landwehr  Division,  the  6th 
Bavarian  Reserve,  the  Fourth  Prussian  Guard 
and  the  201st  Division.  Nowhere  else  along  the 
whole  fighting  front  were  German  troops  massed 
so  densely  as  opposite  the  Rainbow,  the  28th  and 
the  3rd  American  Divisions  at  this  stage  of  the 
Ourcq  Battle. 

By  eight  o'clock  on  the  night  of  July  30, 
Colonel  Fairchild,  the  Rainbow  Division  Sur- 
geon, had  reported  the  losses  in  wounded  alone 
as  3,276  men,  from  the  beginning  of  the  fighting 
at  La  Croix  Rouge  Farm.  Of  the  killed  no  rec- 
ord could  be  kept  at  that  time.  The  brave  men 
who  had  died  were  out  there  in  the  waving  wheat- 
fields  and  the  bodies  of  some  of  them  had  floated 
down  the  Ourcq. 

But  neither  losses  nor  German  reinforcements, 
could  stop  the  Rainbow  Division  now  that  it  had 
started.  The  Foret  de  Nesles  lay  before  it,  full 
of  German  defenses,  and  from  the  woods  on  Hill 
220  machine-guns  still  raked  the  positions  of  the 
168th.    At  nine  a.  m.  on  the  10th  Colonel  Screws 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attach  91 

and  his  167th  Alabamians  started  through  the 
wheat  toward  the  Chateau  de  Nesles,  and  with 
the  aid  of  the  sniping  guns  of  the  26th  Division's 
artillery  which  had  blasted  out  machine-gun 
nests,  crossed  the  plateau  and  dug  in  close  to  the 
Chateau.  The  168th  had  to  dig  in  after  progress- 
ing about  five  hundred  yards. 

In  Meurcy  Farm  Colonel  McCoy's  New  York- 
ers could  only  dig  in  and  seek  shelter  from  the 
withering  fire  down  the  valley  of  the  Ru  du  Pont 
Brule.  Light  field  batteries  and  machine-guns 
played  constantly  on  the  ruins,  and  an  unceasing 
duel  went  on  between  them  and  the  151st  Ar- 
tillery from  Minnesota.  The  most  of  the  165th 
could  have  done  was  hold  and  they  did  that  with 
heroic  tenacity. 

That  night  the  Ohioans  of  the  166th,  finding 
Scringes  a  rather  hot  place  to  hold,  worked  a 
ruse.  They  deserted  the  village.  During  the 
afternoon  enemy  patrols,  filtering  into  it,  found 
it  empty.  More  came  in  and  still  more,  until 
by  nightfall  a  large  body  of  them  were  there, 
probably  preparing  new  machine-gun  positions, 
if  not  preparing  a  counter-attack. 


92      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

And  all  this  time  Colonel  Hough's  men  were 
hanging  to  the  edge  of  Hill  184,  and  when  dark- 
ness had  fallen  they  surrounded  Seringes,  at- 
tacked it  from  every  side,  and  in  a  fierce  hand-to- 
hand  battle  mopped  it  as  clean  of  Germans  as  a 
new  bathroom  fioor. 

The  168th  fought  its  last  fight  of  the  Ourcq 
campaign  on  August  1,  when  it  took  Hill  212. 
It  was  a  terrible  task  and  the  fight  lasted  all 
through  the  hot  day.  The  whole  regiment  was 
in  the  battle  at  one  stage  or  another  with  Major 
Claude  Stanley's  second  battalion  leading  the 
first  attack.  Major  Emory  Worthington's  First 
Battalion  relieving  Stanley,  and  the  Third  Bat- 
talion under  Major  Guy  Brewer  coming  in 
toward  the  end  of  the  day.  The  Third  Battal- 
ion was  the  first  to  get  a  firm  foothold  on  the  hill. 

It  was  Private  Burke,  Major  Brewer's  per- 
sonal orderly,  who  carried  to  regimental  head- 
quarters at  La  Motte  Farm  the  message  that 
Hill  212  had  at  last  been  captured,  after  three 
runners  who  had  started  with  the  same  message 
had  been  killed  by  German  artillery.  Shells  fell 
in  the  whole  Ourcq  valley  that  day  like  rain. 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  93 

Hill  212  commanded  the  Foret  de  TsTesles, 
which  was  now  the  only  strong  position  the 
Boche  had  left  in  his  whole  Ourcq  system. 
French  and  American  artillery  concentrating 
upon  it,  silenced  the  German  batteries  and  they 
began  to  withdraw.  And  on  the  night  of  August 
1,  the  German  infantry  pulled  itself  together 
quietly,  and  silently  stole  away  toward  the  River 
Vesle. 

The  Rainbow  had  outwitted,  outgamed  and 
outfought  the  best  soldiers  in  the  German  army. 
They  were  now  in  full  retreat  from  the  Ourcq. 

The  pursuit  started  next  morning.  The  168th, 
exhausted  after  six  days  and  nights  of  constant 
fighting  of  the  hardest  kind,  was  relieved  by  the 
117th  Engineers  from  California  and  South 
Carolina,  commanded  by  Colonel  Kelly.  This 
regiment,  ready  now  to  attack  as  infantry  as  they 
had  been  ready  to  defend  in  the  Champagne, 
carried  on  the  chase  with  the  Ohio,  Alabama  and 
New  York  infantry  regiments. 

That  day  the  Rainbow  advanced  through  the 
Foret  de  Nesles  nearly  five  kilometers  beyond 
the  point  from  which  it  had  started  in  the  morn- 


04      The  Story  of  the  Eainbow  Division 

ing.  The  Germans  in  their  hurry  to  get  away 
blew  up  great  ammunition  dumps,  but  the  Rain- 
bow came  so  closely  upon  their  heels  that  they 
deserted  nearly  thirty  thousand  shells  which  the 
division  captured  intact. 

A  line  running  between  Mont  St.  Martin  and 
Chery  Chartreuve  was  the  limit  of  the  Rainbow's 
advance;  between  the  first  named  point  and  La 
Croix  Rouge  Farm  the  distance  was  seventeen 
kilometers — the  longest  advance  by  any  division 
attacking  between  Soissons  and  Rheims.  There 
a  relief  of  the  Rainbow  by  the  Fourth  Division, 
which  had  been  progressing  during  the  pursuit, 
was  completed,  but  the  artillery  stayed  in  position 
for  several  days  assisting  the  Fourth  to  maintain 
a  footing  beyond  the  Vesle  River. 

The  weather  was  hot,  and  the  country  full  of 
ruined  viHages,  dead,  unburied  bodies — Boche 
and  American — and  thousands  of  dead  horses. 
The  men  were  dirty;  baths  were  next  to  impos- 
sible. But  instead  of  being  withdrawn  from  the 
salient  which  seemed  on  the  verge  of  becoming  a 
pest-hole,  the  Rainbow  Division  infantry  was 


The  Rainbow's  First  Attack  95 

held  in  reserve  for  nearly  a  week.  Sickness 
broke  out. 

And  into  the  middle  of  this  filthy  backyard  of 
war  with  its  sickening  smells  and  sights  and  its 
unkempt,  lousy  men  there  bounded  on  a  fine 
afternoon  one  Elsie  Janis — fluffy,  beautiful, 
piquant — not  at  all  unlike  a  goddess  just  step- 
ping out  of  the  clouds  for  a  bit  to  see  what  it  was 
all  about  down  here  below.  That's  what  it 
seemed  like  to  the  Rainbow  Division. 

They  hauled  a  wagon-bed  into  an  open  field 
and  made  a  stage  of  it,  and  there  Elsie  Janis 
danced  and  sang  before  a  vast  concourse  of  un- 
washed doughboys  who  suddenly  remembered 
that  there  was  such  a  thing  in  the  world  as  a 
pretty  American  girl — and  were  somewhat  awed 
and  saddened  at  the  remembrance.  An  aero- 
plane came  whirring  overhead  while  Elsie  Janis 
sang  "Oh,  You  Dirty  Germans!"  It  came  so 
low  that  you  could  see  the  black  maltese  cross  on 
the  lower  planes.     But  nobody  minded. 


CHAPTER  VI 

AND  SPEAKING  OF  ELSIE  JANIS 

Was  that  the  only  bit  of  diversion  that  came  to 
the  Rainbow  Division?  Was  there  anything  at 
all  outside  of  fighting  and  the  anticipation  of 
more  fighting  to  keep  up  its  morale? 

Perhaps  this  is  as  fitting  a  place  as  any  other  to 
tell  about  that.  There  is  very  little  to  tell. 
Most  of  the  diversion  the  Rainbow  got  it  sup- 
plied itself.  Moving,  as  it  did,  from  battle  to 
battle  and  from  one  part  of  the  front  to  another, 
it  gave  professional  entertainers  little  chance  to 
catch  up  with  it.  It  manufactured  its  ovni 
amusements,  whetting  its  sense  of  humor  on  the 
French  scenery  and  the  country  people.  The 
Rainbow  Division  lived  twenty  years  over  there 
in  less  than  a  score  of  months;  it  caught  its  fun 
where  it  found  it.     It  had  to. 

So,  as  it  rolled  through  France  in  box-cars  or 

96 


And  Speaking  of  Elsie  Janis  97 

trucks  it  got  as  many  laughs  out  of  a  pair  of 
wooden  shoes  or  an  old  gentleman  riding  on  an 
ox-cart  as  you  at  home  were  getting  out  of  the 
most  popular  comedians. 

In  the  old  Baccarat  sector  it  had  had  more 
time  for  the  sort  of  diversion  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
brought  later  to  the  American  troops  in  France. 
But  at  that  period  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s  system  of 
entertainments  had  not  reached  the  wholly  effi- 
cient stage.  The  American  Expeditionary 
Force  was  new  then,  and  so  were  its  auxiliaries. 

But  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  had  brought  out  base- 
Balls  and  bats  and  gloves  and  on  those  quiet  days 
in  May  the  American  baseball  season  had  opened 
officially  in  Lorraine,  France,  where  first-base 
was  likely  to  be  a  surviving  splinter  of  a  ruined 
barn  and  home  plate  a  filled-in  shell  hole.  And 
there  were  many  sets  of  boxing  gloves. 

They  used  to  stage  bouts  in  the  streets  of  the 
front  line  villages  in  the  Baccarat  sector.  The 
lowans  would  fight  the  Alabamians  and  the  New 
Yorkers  would  fight  the  Ohioans,  and  inter- 
State  championship  disputes  were  fought  out 
day  after   day.     Sometimes   these   ring-battles 


98      The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Dixnsion 

drew  big  crowds.  One  of  the  biggest  crowds 
gathered  one  day  toward  the  end  of  May  in  the 
little  town  of  Pexonne  where  a  Franco- Ameri- 
can bout  was  to  take  place.  The  "Franco"  was 
a  French  soldier.  The  American  was  Corporal 
"Kid"  Gorden  of  the  Maryland  Trench-Mortar 
Battery. 

They  had  roped  off  a  ring  in  the  middle  of  the 
town  square  of  Pexonne.  More  than  three  hun- 
dred men  were  gathered  there — French  and 
American  soldiers.  It  was  a  warm,  clear  day — 
not  a  cloud  in  the  sky,  and  the  low  hum  of  planes 
echoed  over  the  land  like  the  pleasant  summer 
noise  of  bees. 

Gorden  was  getting  the  best  of  the  French- 
man. The  latter  had  come  up  groggily  for  the 
fifth  round  and  the  Americans  in  the  crowd  were 
shouting,  "Put  him  out.  Kid!  One  haymaker '11 
finish  him!  Land  on  his  beak!"  The  American 
boy  tucked  his  left  ear  behind  his  shoulder, 
rushed  in  and  was  uncoiling  a  terrific  right  swing 
when  a  strange  noise  shut  out  the  sound  of  cheer- 
ing— a  loud,  roaring  buzz  directly  overhead. 
Somebody   shouted  "Look   out!"     The   crowd 


And  Speaking  of  Elsie  Janis  99 

looked  up,  and  there  was  a  German  plane,  swoop- 
ing low,  making  straight  for  the  ringside. 

Instinctively  the  group  broke,  scurrying  for 
cover.  Gorden's  haymaker  stopped  in  mid-air;  a 
dozen  arms  were  around  the  groggy  French 
boxer  dragging  him  away.  And  then  with  a 
splintering  crash  a  bomb  hit  the  village  "]£pi- 
cerie"  and  tore  it  to  pieces. 

That  was  the  last  street  boxing-match  the 
Rainbow  Division  held  in  the  Baccarat  sector. 
The  German  aviator  had  seen  the  animated  black 
spot  below  him,  just  behind  the  Allied  lines,  and, 
coming  lower  he  had  made  it  out  to  be  a  group 
of  men — an  excellent  target.  And  the  little 
French  grocery  store  which  he  had  hit  with  his 
bomb  was  on  the  edge  of  the  square  less  than  a 
hundred  yards  from  the  boxing  ring. 

So  orders  forbidding  the  grouping  of  many 
men  in  one  spot  were  more  strictly  enforced  and 
the  boxing  matches  stopped.  Thereafter,  when 
the  men  wanted  to  box  they  had  to  take  to  the 
forests  in  the  rear  and  they  could  not  get  there 
unless  they  happened  to  be  enjoying  a  relief 
from  the  trench  vigil.     But  the  ball  games  con- 


100    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

tinued,  with  the  doors  and  windows  of  the  vil- 
lages serving  as  bleachers  and  grandstands  and 
the  pitchers  working  with  one  eye  on  the  skies 
and  the  other  on  the  batters.  And  everybody 
with  his  gas-mask  at  the  "alert." 

There  had  been  band  concerts,  too,  in  the 
Baccarat  days.  At  sunset  they  held  retreat  and 
the  regimental  bands  had  played  Sousa  marches 
and  winding  up  with  **The  Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner," while  the  doughboys  in  long  ranks  stood  at 
"present  arms,"  and  every  American  within  the 
sound  of  the  band  stopped  dead  in  his  tracks  and 
stood  in  reverent  silence,  thinking  of  his  home 
and  his  country. 

And  in  a  few  minutes,  if  the  wind  was  right, 
Ihere  would  come  faintly  from  the  north  the 
sound  of  brass  horns  playing  "The  Watch  on 
the  Rhine" — a  German  band  at  the  evening  cere- 
mony. 

Thus  lived  the  Rainbow  in  France,  thriving 
'(unlike  "Jack"  of  the  proverb)  on  nearly  all 
work  and  hardly  any  play;  and  never  growing 
too  dull  to  cut  a  German  throat.  Such  groups 
of  traveling  minstrels  as  came  to  other  divisions 


And  Speaking  of^  Elsie  Janis         101 

and  made  merry  seldom  if  ever  came  to  the  Kain- 
bow.  Its  chances  to  play  ended  when  it  left  the 
Baccarat  sector  and  those  chances  never  returned 
until  the  war  was  over. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WITH  THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  ARMY  IN  THE  STROLL 
THROUGH  ST.  MIHIEL 

There  were  gaps  in  the  ranks  of  the  Rainbow 
now — ^big  gaps.  Behind  it  along  Europe's  bat- 
tle line  from  Lorraine  to  the  River  Vesle, 
stretched  a  long  trail,  marked  here  by  wooden 
crosses,  marked  there  by  muddy  mounds.  It  had 
been  in  Trance  nine  months  and  it  was  an  Amer- 
ican division  of  veterans. 

They  took  it  out  of  the  reeking  country  be- 
tween the  Ourcq  and  the  Vesle  on  August  12, 
and  marched  it  back  to  the  La-Ferte-sous- 
Jouarre  area.  There  it  rested  a  couple  of  days. 
There  were  chateaus  in  La-Ferte-sous-Jouarre, 
and  broad  roads  shaded  with  mighty  trees;  the 
weather  was  warm  and  the  air  sweet  and  spark- 
ling like  old  wine.  And  if  you  had  luck  you  got 
a  hot  bath  and  a  haircut;  and  if  you  were  an  of- 

102 


The  Stroll  Through  St.  Mihiel        103 

ficer  with  an  automobile  you  could  steal  into 
Paris  and  grab  off  a  couple  of  fancy  meals  and 
see  the  places  where  the  bright  lights  used  to  be. 

But  La-Ferte-sous-Jouarre  with  Paris  in 
touring  distance  was  too  good  to  last.  On 
August  17  the  division  was  loaded  into  cars 
marked  "Hommes  40,  Chevaux  8,"  and  rolled 
off  to  the  Bourmont  area.  It  was  booked  for  a 
period  of  "intensive  training." 

Bourmont  was  on  the  road  between  Langres 
and  Neufchateau  where  the  people  were  friendly 
and  the  food  pretty  plentiful.  You  could  buy  ex- 
tras for  the  mess,  like  creamy  old  camembert  and 
— well,  principally,  creamy  old  camembert — at 
moderate  prices.  It  was  a  beautiful  country,  too 
— hilly  and  green,  and  for  dignity  of  proportions, 
prodigality  of  distribution  and  richness  of  scent 
its  manure  heaps  were  the  finest  the  Rainbow 
Division  had  seen. 

Here,  beyond  the  sound  of  guns  for  the  first 
time  since  February,  the  Rainbow  reveled  in  the 
nearest  thing  to  a  rest  that  it  had  during  the 
whole  of  its  career  in  France.  All  it  had  to  do 
was  study  every  branch  of  open  warfare,  with 


104    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

special  emphasis  on  the  attacking  of  machine- 
gun  nests  by  advancing  infantry  accompanied 
by  machine-guns  and  light  artillery.  On  the 
Ourcq  it  had  rehearsed  this  thing  for  six  days  with 
more  or  less  assistance  toward  the  achievement 
of  proficiency  by  the  flower  of  the  German  Army. 
But  here  it  got  a  polish,  an  expertness  that 
proved  valuable  later  on. 

The  division  stayed  in  Bourmont  until  Au- 
gust 30.  Immediately  after  the  Battle  of  the 
Ourcq,  while  it  was  still  in  reserve,  important 
changes  had  taken  place  in  staff  and  in  the  line. 

Colonel  Douglas  Mac  Arthur,  the  Chief  of 
Staff,  had  been  made  a  Brigadier  General  and 
put  in  command  of  the  84th  Infantry  Brigade 
comprising  the  Alabama  and  Iowa  infantry  regi- 
ments and  the  Georgia  Machine-gun  Battalion. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  William  N.  Hughes  had  been 
promoted  from  the  position  of  G3  or  Divisional 
Chief  of  Operations  to  Chief  of  Staff.  Major 
Grayson  M.  P.  Murphy  became  G3.  Captain 
Robert  J.  Gill,  commander  of  the  Trench-mortar 
Battery  from  Maryland  was  promoted  to  the 
grade  of  Major  and  became  Gl,  or  Assistant 


The  Stroll  Through  St.  Mihiel        105 

Chief  of  Staff,  succeeding  Colonel  J.  W.  Beach- 
am.  Major  Stanley  M.  Rumbough,  Adjutant 
of  the  84th  Brigade  and  Captain  Walter  G. 
Wolf,  assistant  to  G3,  changed  places. 

Replacements,  those  freshly  arrived,  untried 
soldiers  at  whose  advent  the  veteran  survivors  of 
hard  battles  look  askance,  and  without  whom  no 
division  could  continue  its  career  as  a  division, 
came  to  the  Rainbow  in  great  numbers.  The 
gaps  in  the  ranks  were  filled.  Lost  and  battle- 
scarred  equipment  was  replaced  by  new,  up-to- 
date  fighting  material.  The  Rainbow  Division, 
in  a  sort  of  new  Camp  Mills,  having  found  its 
fighting  spirit  in  the  field,  now  was  being  made 
over — getting  its  second  wind,  so  to  speak. 

For  great  things  were  in  the  air.  Other  divi- 
sions besides  the  Rainbow  were  coming  into  this 
Bourmont  area — most  of  them  veterans  also — 
for  intensive  training,  replacements  and  new 
equipment.  It  was  the  gathering  of  the  First 
American  Army.  The  helter-skelter  group  of 
American  divisions  likely  to  be  thrown  into  the 
line  anywhere,  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  On  the 
soil  of  France  a  real  army  had  been  born  to  the 


106    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

United  States.     The  Rainbow  Division  was  a 
part  of  it. 

Greater  still  this  army  was  about  to  start,  on 
its  own  initiative  and  responsibility,  without  help 
or  counsel  from  the  armies  of  the  other  allies,  an 
offensive  against  the  German  line.  The  Rain- 
bow Division  was  to  be  in  it. 

It  was  a  strange  thing,  but  it  is  actually  a  fact, 
that  the  French  civilians  told  the  American  sol- 
diers about  this  offensive  before  they  heard  it 
from  their  own  commanders.  They  even  pro- 
fessed to  know  accurately  where  the  thrust  was 
to  be  made.  They  said  it  would  be  made  at  St. 
Mihiel;  and  they  were  right. 

The  First  American  Army  was  going  to  try 
to  repeat  in  the  old  Lorraine  salient  what  had 
just  happened  in  the  Soissons-Rheims  salient. 
That  ugly  nose  of  the  German  army  had  been 
mashed  flat,  and  now  the  same  thing  was  to  be 
done  to  this  one. 

It  is  not  entirely  correct  to  say  that  this  First 
American  Army,  commanded  by  General  John 
J.  Pershing,  was  to  begin  work  with  no  help  or 
counsel  whatever  from  the  other  allies.     Aside 


The  Stroll  Through  St  Mihiel        107 

from  the  constant  presence  at  headquarters  of 
divisions,  brigades,  regiments  and  even  battal- 
ions, of  officers  of  the  French  Mission,  and  aside 
from  the  fact  that  most  of  the  basic  knowledge 
upon  which  it  was  expanding  had  been  derived 
from  the  French  and  British,  there  was  a  little 
of  both  help  and  counsel  now. 

The  counsel  came  from  Marshal  Foch.  He 
told  General  Pershing  that  unless  the  attack  on 
St.  Mihiel  was  made  during  the  first  week  in 
September  it  could  not  be  made  at  all  on  account 
of  the  heavy  fall  of  rain  in  that  section  of  France, 
which  started  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  week 
in  the  month.  So  the  attack  was  set  for  Sep- 
tember 7. 

But  as  the  time  drew  near  not  everything  was 
ready.  It  was  a  gigantic  business,  this  first  at- 
tack, and  the  First  American  Army  was  func- 
tioning for  the  first  time.  For  the  first  time  its 
staff — the  thinking  machine  that  plans  moves  and 
battles  down  to  the  last  detail — was  working  "on 
its  own."  The  American  fighting  soldiers  had 
proven  themselves;  there  was  little  doubt  about 
what  they  would  do,  but  until  now  the  soldiers 


108    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

who  had  done  their  thinking  for  them  had  been 
French.  So  St.  Mihiel  was  not  to  be  a  test  of 
the  plain  everyday  fighting  abihty  of  the  Amer- 
icans but  of  their  generalship — their  staff  work. 
And  it  was  a  tremendous  test.  Fear  that  it 
would  have  disastrous  results  had  moved  Mar- 
shal Foch  to  discourage  General  Pershing  in  the 
undertaking  before  he  uttered  his  counsel  about 
the  weather. 

Transportation  difficulties  arose.  The  move- 
ment of  nearly  six  hundred  thousand  men  to  the 
region  around  Toul  tied  up  the  means  of  moving 
up  enough  ammunition  and  supplies  for  the  big 
drive.  The  First  American  Army  could  not 
afford  to  make  its  initial  effort  with  a  shortage 
of  ammunition  or  supplies.  Complete  success  in 
the  outcome  was  absolutely  necessary.  And  so 
as  it  developed  that  September  7  would  find  the 
army  unready  to  attack,  the  push  was  postponed 
to  September  12,  rain  or  no  rain. 

As  a  weather  prophet  Marshal  Foch  made 
good.  But  as  a  judge  of  the  American  Army's 
disposition  to  recognize  obstacles  he  failed. 

The  Rainbow  Division  had  started  forward  on 


The  Stroll  Through  St.  Mihiel        109 

August  30.  Moving  always  at  night  and  rest- 
ing during  the  day  in  inconspicuous  places  (for 
the  attack  was  to  be  a  surprise)  it  marched  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty  kilometers  to  the  Foret 
de  la  Reine.  There  it  went  into  camp  in  shel- 
ter tents.  It  became  a  division  of  mud-dwell- 
ers, lying  quietly  in  the  sticky  black  muck  all  day 
and  wallowing  about  in  it  through  the  night,  for 
by  daylight  no  movement  of  men  or  transporta- 
tion was  permitted. 

Rain  fell  steadily  and  the  roads  became  hor- 
rors. Through  the  downpour  and  the  absolute 
blackness  the  Texans  of  the  117th  Supply  Train 
and  the  Kansas  men  of  the  117th  Ammunition 
Train  struggled  forward  inches  at  a  time  with 
the  deep  mud  sucking  their  trucks  back  and  the 
pitch-dark  roads  seeming  to  fall  away  beneath 
them.  Nearly  always  about  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  all  the  Rainbow's  transportation  was 
stalled  impotently  in  the  mud  and  wrecking 
crews  were  at  work  day  and  night.  It  began  to 
look  as  though  Marshal  Foch  had  known  some- 
thing when  he  said  it  couldn't  be  done.  But  the 
long  boys  from  the  Texas  and  Kansas  prairies 


110   The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

didn't  know  it  couldn't  be  done,  so  they  went 
ahead  and  did  it. 

The  Boche  thought  it  couldn't  be  done;  they 
didn't  dream  it  was  being  done.  It  is  likely  that 
after  the  reverses  in  the  Marne  salient  the  Ger- 
man high  command  decided  to  withdraw  from 
the  St.  Mihiel  salient  and  take  up  a  position 
along  the  Hindenburg  line  under  the  guns  of 
Metz.  But  they  were  in  no  hurry  about  it ;  here 
were  the  fall  rains,  and  who  ever  heard  of  fight- 
ing after  the  fall  rains  had  started?  Certainly 
not  Marshal  Foch. 

And  while  they  thought  these  things  the  First 
American  Army  landed  on  them  with  both  muddy 
feet. 

The  bombardment  started  at  one  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  September  12.  It  was  not  the 
greatest  preliminary  bombardment  of  the  war; 
compared  to  the  deafening  roars  of  the  Cham- 
pagne battle  it  sounded  weak.  But  it  did  the 
work.  There  were  some  French  Corps  and 
Army  artillery  with  the  American  batteries,  and 
together  in  four  hours  they  tore  great  holes  in  the 
trench,  wire  and  machine-gun  defenses  the  Ger- 


The  Stroll  Through  St.  Mihiel        111 

mans  had  perfected  in  the  saHent  during  four 
years. 

At  five  o'clock,  in  a  pouring  rain  and  through 
a  thick  mist  the  infantry  started. 

The  Rainbow  Division,  as  part  of  the  Fourth 
Corps  under  Major-General  Joseph  T.  Dickman, 
jumped  off  along  the  southern  boundary  of  the 
salient  east  of  Mont  Sec;  its  sector  extended 
from  Beaumont  northeast  to  Flirey,  and  included 
Seicheprey,  where  the  Germans  had  sprung  a 
surprise  attack  on  the  26th  Division  earlier  in 
the  year,  inflicting  heavy  losses  and  capturing 
nearly  two  hundred  prisoners. 

The  Rainbow  was  the  center  division  of  the 
Fourth  Corps,  with  the  89th  on  its  right  and  the 
First  on  its  left.  On  the  right  of  the  89th  was 
the  First  Corps  under  Major-General  Hunter 
Liggett,  comprising  the  2nd,  5th,  90th  and  82nd 
Divisions  in  that  order  from  left  to  right. 

On  the  western  boundary  of  the  salient  the 
Fifth  Corps  under  Major-General  George  H. 
Cameron,  jumped  off.  It  included  the  4th  and 
26th  American  Divisions  and  a  French  division. 

At  the  point  of  the  salient  were  more  French 


112    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

troops  who  were  simply  to  hold  fast  and  mop  up 
as  the  Americans,  pressing  in  from  the  sides, 
closed  the  jaws  of  the  pincers  and  squeezed  the 
Boche  either  in  or  out. 

In  the  same  smooth-working  battle  formation 
with  which  it  plowed  through  the  Germans  in 
every  battle — Ohio,  New  York,  Alabama,  Iowa, 
from  left  to  right  facing  the  enemy — the  four 
infantry  regiments  of  the  Rainbow  Division 
started  through  the  St.  Mihiel  salient.  In  front 
of  every  platoon  were  the  California  and  South 
Carolina  engineers  with  wire-cutters  and  benga- 
lore  torpedoes,  to  cut  or  blow  out  any  wire  en- 
tanglements that  remained  in  the  path  of  the  in- 
fantry. 

For  completeness  of  equipment  in  attacking 
material  the  First  American  Army  went  at  the 
job  of  reducing  the  St.  Mihiel  salient  in  as  per- 
fect condition,  probably,  as  any  force  of  soldiers 
that  ever  went  over  the  top.  There  were  tanks, 
French  and  American ;  there  was  railroad  heavy 
artillery,  trench  mortars,  and  gas  and  flame- 
throwers. For  the  first  time  and  the  last  in  its 
brief  but  busy  life,  the  Rainbow  Division  saw. 


The  Stroll  Through  St  Mihiel        113 

the  Allies  in  complete  mastery  of  the  air.  The 
French  Independent  Air  Force  and  some  Brit- 
ish bombing  squadrons  had  been  put  under  Gen- 
eral Pershing's  command,  and  these,  with  our 
own  aviators,  drove  the  Boche  airmen  out  of  the 
sky. 

The  drive  moved  ahead  like  clockwork.  The 
old  Seicheprey  battlefield  was  taken  by  the  Ohio 
infantry  regiment  without  any  trouble.  On  the 
right  the  Iowa  doughboys  encountered  some  re- 
sistance in  the  woods  northwest  of  Flirey.  There 
were  moments  of  stiff  fighting  for  the  heights  in 
the  vicinity  of  St.  Bassant,  but  to  the  men  who 
had  beaten  the  German  machine-gunners  on  the 
Ourcq,  the  defenders  of  the  St.  Mihiel  salient 
were  easy  victims. 

The  Germans  were  taken  almost  completely 
by  surprise.  What  resistance  they  put  up  was 
half-hearted.  Their  wire-fields  were  old  and 
rusty.  Their  answering  artillery  bombardment, 
during  the  actual  pushing  operation  at  least,  was 
a  joke. 

The  path  of  the  Rainbow  through  the  salient 
was  probably  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole  First 


114    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Army.  A  road  zig-zagged  up  through  its  sector 
with  six  villages  on  it,  and  villages,  offering  pro- 
tection to  machine-gunners,  are  notably  hard  to 
take.  But  after  St.  Bassant,  Essey  fell  and 
then  Pannes,  and  there  the  Rainbow  dug  itself 
into  muddy  foxholes  and  held  on  for  the  night. 
Before  them  lay  the  villages  of  Beney  and  St. 
Benoit. 

It  was  at  Essey  that  the  Rainbow  men  saw  the 
French  civilians  they  had  liberated, — the  first 
French  civilians  to  be  freed  from  German  mili- 
tary domination  by  an  Allied  victory.  For 
though  during  the  four  years  the  battle  line  had 
surged  back  and  forth  over  many  French  vil- 
lages the  inhabitants  of  those  places  had  long  be- 
fore fled  southward  as  refugees  and  their  homes 
were  in  ruins.  Here  within  the  St.  Mihiel  sal- 
ient were  villages  that  had  become  German  prizes 
in  the  war's  first  year,  that  had  escaped  all  but 
desultory  shell-fire  from  the  French,  where  the 
people  had  lived  until  now  under  German  mas- 
ters. Nowhere  else  had  the  German  line  been 
bent  to  release  such  hostage  towns  from  German 
rule. 


The  Stroll  Through  St  Mihiel        115 

There  were  few  wild  demonstrations — ^little 
hailing  of  the  deliverers  with  flowers  and  flags. 
In  the  dismal  rain  and  mud  the  dejected  old  vil- 
lagers silently  watched  the  Americans  coming 
through ;  they  were  broken-spirited  old  people — 
few  cheers  left  in  them.  Forced  submission  to 
brutality  for  four  long  years  had  numbed  them 
so  that  they  were  unresponsive  to  one  of  the  most 
thrillingly  significant  happenings  in  history. 

In  Pannes  there  were  big  German  military 
storehouses  with  queer  stores  in  them.  The 
Rainbow  men,  hunting  around  for  souvenirs, 
came  forth  from  these  places,  rainsoaked  and  dis- 
reputable-looking soldiers,  carrying  brand-new, 
shiny  patent-leather  boots  and  wearing  high  silk 
hats  atop  their  old  tin  helmets.  The  place  was 
full  of  patent-leather  boots,  silk  hats  and  um- 
brellas. It  was  in  Pannes,  too,  that  they  got  a 
billiard  table  and  a  phonograph,  both  unharmed 
despite  the  Allied  bombardment. 

Next  day  the  attack  was  resumed  and  the  line 
pushed  through  Beney  and  St.  Benoit  to  a  point 
just  south  of  Haumont.  The  Rainbow  Division 
had  advanced  nineteen  kilometers,  a  longer  dis- 


116    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

tance  than  any  other  division  in  the  First  Amer- 
ican Army,  and  had  shared  in  the  reduction  of 
the  entire  St,  Mihiel  salient,  liberating  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  square  kilometers  of  French  ter- 
ritory and  capturing  sixteen  thousand  prisoners 
and  four  hundred  and  forty-three  pieces  of  artil- 
lery. 

But  what  was  more  important  to  the  tired,  war- 
weary  world,  the  First  American  Army,  acting 
independently,  had  demonstrated  its  ability  to 
carry  on  a  major  offensive  not  only  with  success 
but  with  a  smoothness  and  a  smashing  directness 
that  no  one  would  have  believed  possible  at  that 
stage  of  its  development.  The  Germans  had 
been  swept  from  the  salient  as  quickly  and  as 
neatly  as  though  a  broom  had  swished  them  out. 

Only  in  the  matter  of  moving  up  the  supplies 
and  ammunition  and  in  keeping  the  artillery 
close  up  behind  the  advancing  infantry  did  the 
machinery  of  the  offensive  function  poorly.  Had 
the  German  power  of  counter-attack  not  been 
so  demoralized  by  the  suddenness  and  unexpect- 
edness of  the  blow  there  might  have  been  disas- 
ter in  this  fact. 


The  Stroll  Through  St.  Mihiel        llT 

The  roads  across  No-Man's-Land  had  been 
entirely  destroyed,  and  the  condition  of  the 
ground  and  the  weather  made  repairs  difficult. 
Colonel  Kelly's  engineers  labored  incessantly  to 
get  the  Rainbow's  roads  into  shape,  but  traffic 
poured  in  on  them  from  all  directions,  and  at  the 
village  of  Flirey  there  was  unbelievable  conges- 
tion. In  four  directions  from  the  cross-roads  in 
the  center  of  Flirey  were  masses  of  from  two  to 
four  lanes  of  traffic  for  distances  of  from  three 
to  five  miles.  Nothing  could  move  in  any  direc- 
tion. Staff  automobiles  were  there  from  three 
different  divisions ;  heavy  artillery,  tractors,  sup- 
ply and  ration- wagons,  motorcycles  and  tanks — 
all  locked  in  the  most  hopeless  tangle.  At  some 
points  this  part  of  the  American  Army  was  at  a 
complete  standstill  for  twenty-four  hours. 

Several  well-placed  shells  in  this  mass  from 
the  German  guns  would  have  wrought  terrible 
havoc.  But  all  the  German  guns  that  hadn't 
been  captured  were  being  desperately  dragged 
off  to  the  Hindenburg  line  by  an  army  that 
hadn't  time  to  realize  what  had  hit  it.  Intelli- 
gence found  on  captured  prisoners  showed  that 


118    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

the  Germans  did  not  expect  the  attack  during 
the  rain,  and  that  they  considered  it  a  rather 
mean  thing  to  do — an  advantage  that  would  not 
have  been  taken  by  the  French  and  British. 
They  had  been  caught  in  the  act  of  withdrawing 
their  artillery  from  their  old  positions  to  the  line 
of  La  Chaussee,  where  it  would  have  inflicted 
considerable  damage  to  the  advancing  Ameri- 
cans. 

Back  on  the  Hindenburg  line,  however,  and 
under  the  guns  of  Metz  they  regathered  their 
scattered  wits  and  proceeded  to  shell  the  new  line 
and  the  rear  areas  heavilj^  Day  and  night  they 
rained  shrapnel  and  high  explosive  on  the  First 
American  Army,  not  concentrating  their  fire  on 
any  particular  points,  but  covering  everything. 
For  several  days  after  the  drive  the  St.  ^lihiel 
sector  was  the  most  active  in  the  matter  of  artil- 
lery duelling  on  the  whole  western  front. 

Brigadier-General  Douglas  MacArthur,  com- 
manding the  84th  Brigade  of  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion, realized  this  activity  in  time,  perhaps,  to 
save  his  life.  He  had  established  his  headquarters 
in  a  chateau  at  St.  Benoit,  almost  in  the  front 


The  Stroll  Through  St.  Mihiel        119 

lines.  It  was  under  full  observation  from  the 
German  positions.  For  a  time  it  escaped  the 
shelling  because  the  Germans  never  dreamed  that 
a  brigade  commander  was  living  there,  almost  in 
the  front  line  trenches. 

One  day,  though,  several  shells  fell  pretty  close 
to  it  and  General  MacArthur  decided  to  move 
out.  And  the  day  after  he  moved  the  Germans, 
having  noted  the  activity  around  the  place, 
shelled  it  fiercely  and  reduced  it  to  a  blazing, 
smoking  heap  of  ruins. 

General  Menoher,  the  Rainbow  Division  Com- 
mander, was  also  forced  to  alter  plans  for  estab- 
lishing division  headquarters  in  the  St.  Mihiel 
sector,  but  for  a  different  reason.  Looking  at 
the  map  he  had  decided  upon  the  village  of 
Maizerais,  about  a  half  kilometer  from  Essey.  It 
looked  like  a  pretty  good  town  on  the  map.  But 
when  he  arrived  at  the  spot,  expecting  to  see  a 
village  with  at  least  a  few  decent  habitations  in 
it,  he  found  nothing.  Maizerais  was  not  only  a 
ruin;  it  was  an  almost  extinct  ruin.  Over  the 
crumbled  foundations  of  shell-shattered  houses 
grass  had  grown;  a  casual  observer  would  have 


120    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

marked  it  merely  as  an  extraordinary  rough- 
surfaced  field.  As  a  destroyed  French  town 
Maizerais  held  the  record,  so  far  as  the  Rainbow 
was  concerned,  throughout  the  whole  war.  So 
General  Menoher  established  his  headquarters  in 
Essey.  About  two  miles  from  Essey  was  the 
Forest  of  the  Lovely  Willow. 

There  the  Germans,  feeling  secure  in  the  un- 
challenged possession  of  the  land  for  four  years, 
had  built  themselves  a  suburban  village  like  unto 
the  places  tired  city  dwellers  journey  to  on  Sun- 
days in  contemplation  of  a  "back-to-the-land" 
movement.  They  had  turned  the  Forest  of  the 
Lovely  Willow  into  a  pretty  little  bungalow 
park. 

General  Menoher,  abandoning  Essey,  took  it 
over  later  for  Rainbow  Division  Headquarters, 
and  he  and  his  whole  staff  and  detachments  from 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Ruby  Garrett's  Missouri 
Signal  Corps — about  three  hundred  men  in  all — 
lived  and  flourished  there  for  several  days,  con- 
vinced, before  they  left,  that  the  better  part  of 
**Kultur,"  as  the  Germans  practiced  it,  was  the 
art  of  being  comfortable. 


The  Stroll  Through  St,  Mihiel        121 

Pretty  rustic  walks  with  hand  raihngs  curled 
through  and  around  its  cluster  of  cosy  houses; 
there  was  one  of  those  amusement  park  rifle 
ranges  with  a  moving  target ;  the  Offizier-Kasino 
was  snugly  upholstered  in  red,  with  bright  elec- 
tric lamps,  tasteful  wall-paper,  a  butler's  pantry 
and  electric  push-buttons  for  summoning  the 
drinks  or  the  chicken-salad. 

The  rest-house  for  soldiers  was  a  pretty  little 
chalet  with  picture  post-cards  plastered  on  the 
walls,  showing  the  German  Army  being  joyously 
greeted  in  Brussels,  and  London  crumbling  into 
the  Thames  under  Zeppelin  bombardments. 

And  there  were  rows  and  rows  of  houses  for 
officers'  billets,  rows  of  squad  cottages  like  hunt- 
ing-lodges in  the  Adirondacks ;  a  bowling  alley, 
an  electric  power-house,  a  hospital,  a  central 
kitchen.  It  was  a  tiny  model  city,  and  to  live 
there  after  the  mud  and  the  foxholes  was  some- 
what like  a  vacation  for  the  Rainbow's  head- 
quarters. 

Not  a  mine  or  a  booby-trap  had  been  planted 
in  the  whole  place,  so  rapidly  had  the  Germans 
left  it.    They  had  not  even  taken  time  to  remove 


122    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

signs  from  the  villages  and  the  bungalow  city, 
calling  upon  all  soldiers  who  wanted  to  settle  on 
the  "conquered"  land  to  file  squatters'  claims 
with  their  officers ! 

And  now,  with  the  new  line  of  the  First  Ameri- 
can Army  all  consolidated  and  perfected,  the  men 
of  the  Rainbow  Division,  now  holding  not  only 
their  own  sector,  but  that  of  the  First  Division 
on  the  left  as  well,  wanted  to  go  on  to  Metz. 
They  felt  sure  they  could  take  it.  They  growled 
and  fumed  constantly  about  it.  But  they  did 
nothing  except  hold  on  to  the  new  line  under  the 
constant  fire  of  German  artillery,  until  the  night 
of  September  22,  four  days  before  the  opening 
of  the  first  Meuse-Argonne  off  enisve  on  Septem- 
ber 26. 

As  soon  as  the  St.  Mihiel  salient  had  been 
reduced,  artillery  and  reserve  divisions  had 
started  on  their  way  westward  for  this,  the  su- 
preme eiFort  by  the  American  armies.  Absolute 
secrecy  was  essential.  So  in  order  to  prey  upon 
the  Germans'  nerves,  to  keep  them  in  doubt  as 
to  the  next  attacking  point,  and  to  obtain  infor- 
mation of  their  plans,  several  raids  were  planned 


The  Stroll  Through  St  Mihiel        123 

and  executed.  Some  of  them  had  not  been  very 
successful.  It  was  on  the  night  of  September  22 
that  the  Rainbow  Division's  turn  came. 

Haumont,  to  the  northwest  of  St.  Benoit,  and 
Marimbois  Farm,  to  the  northwest,  were  selected 
as  the  objectives.  There  were  to  be  two  raiding 
parties  to  strike  simultaneously,  one  at  Marim- 
bois Farm,  to  the  northwest  of  St.  Benoit,  and 
one  at  Haumont,  to  the  northeast.  They  were 
to  be  "go-and-come"  raids,  like  the  one  in  the 
Bois  des  Chiefis,  back  at  Baccarat,  in  May. 

Detachments  of  picked  men  were  made  np, 
one  from  M  Company  of  the  167th  (Alabama) 
Infantry,  under  Capt.  Maurice  Howe,  and  the 
other  from  K  Company  of  the  168th  (Iowa)  In- 
fantry. Batteries  of  the  Illinois  (149th)  Field 
Artillery  regiment  were  to  support  the  Ala- 
bamians  and  lowans. 

And  to  make  a  long  story  short  they  rushed 
over,  while  the  artillery  poured  enfilading  fire 
into  the  farm  and  the  village;  killed  more  than 
fifty  Germans  while  most  of  them  retired,  fear- 
ing a  general  attack,  and  brought  back  twenty- 
five  fine,  healthy  prisoners  and  two  machine- 


124j    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

guns.  It  was  the  best  night's  work  around  the 
old  St.  Mihiel  salient  since  the  night  the  salient 
had  disappeared. 

At  about  this  time  there  were  a  few  changes 
among  unit  commanders.  Colonel  Mitchell,  by 
the  way,  had  led  the  New  Yorkers  of  the  165th 
in  the  St.  Mihiel  drive,  Colonel  Frank  McCoy 
having  been  made  a  Brigadier- General  and  left 
the  division.  And  now  Colonel  Kelly,  leader  of 
the  Rainbow  Engineers,  was  made  engineer  of 
an  Army  Corps,  and  Colonel  J.  M.  Johnson 
succeeded  him,  while  Lieutenant-Colonel  Tinley 
succeeded  Colonel  Bennet  as  commander  of  the 
168th  from  Iowa. 

And  so  the  Rainbow  Division  stood,  just  in 
front  of  the  Hindenburg  line,  now  looking  back 
on  their  part  in  the  big  American  victory,  now 
looking  longingly  toward  Metz,  while  from  the 
north  and  west  there  came  to  it  the  low  rumble 
of  many  guns,  chanting  for  the  armies  of  Ger- 
many their  death  song. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THEOUGH  THE  AEGONNE  TO  SEDAN 

Trucks  at  four  a.  m.  and  good-by  to  St. 
Mihiel !  The  Rainbow — a  shock  division  now,  to 
be  held  back  like  a  ring-champion's  best  punch, 
till  time  for  the  knockout — ^was  rushed  over  to 
Benoit  Vaux  in  the  autumn-tinted  country  be- 
hind Verdun. 

That  was  October  1.  Three  days  later  to  Rei- 
court  and  on  October  6  to  the  Bois  de  Mont- 
faucon,  a  pitiably  wrecked  forest,  gouged  and 
chewed  for  four  years  by  the  guns  of  the  world's 
armies  seeking  to  conquer  and  to  defend  Verdun. 

And  now  Verdun  lay  behind  the  Rainbow 
Division,  while  every  day  the  roar  of  the  battle 
beyond  came  down  to  its  dead  streets  and  its 
brave  citadel  fainter  and  fainter.  And  before 
the  Rainbow  Division  lay  the  line  of  the  First 
American  Army  fighting  the  final  battle  for  the 

125 


126    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

world  against  the  armies  of  Germany;  and  the 
armies  of  Germany  struggling  with  the  last  des- 
perate strength  of  trapped  and  beaten  beasts. 
The  Rainbow  crouched  in  its  black  mudholes 
waiting  for  orders  to  strike. 

Again  it  becomes  necessary  (as  the  storm  nec- 
essarily precedes  the  advent  of  the  bright-hued 
bow  in  the  sky)  to  paint  in  a  gray,  neutral- tinted 
background. 

When  we  left  the  Rainbow  Division  in  the  last 
chapter  the  breezes  from  the  west  were  bearing 
toward  St.  Mihiel  the  rumble  of  many  guns.  It 
was  the  start  of  the  Argonne-Meuse  drive  of 
September  26 — the  beginning  of  the  end. 

The  echoes  of  the  last  American  barrage  in  the 
St.  Mihiel  salient  had  scarcely  died  away  when 
corps  and  army  artillery  and  some  divisions 
in  reserve  were  starting  westward  for  this,  prob- 
ably the  greatest  single  operation  of  the  war. 
Their  trip  had  ended  back  of  the  line  that 
stretched  from  the  Meuse  River  to  the  western 
edge  of  the  Argonne  Forest.  On  the  other  side 
of  this  line  was  the  heart  of  "New  Germany," 
built  by  the  German  army  upon  the  ruins  of 


Through  the  Argonne  to  Sedan       127 

France  and  Belgium.  During  four  years  the 
German  war-making  plants  had  accumulated 
there;  there  were  his  two  great  military  railway 
lines,  the  northernmost  running  through  Liege 
and  Namur,  the  southernmost  running  through 
Longuyon,  Montmedy  and  Sedan.  These  lines, 
the  upper  one  starting  at  Cologne  and  curving 
slightly  southwest  and  the  lower  starting  at 
Coblentz  and  curving  first  south  and  then  north- 
west, met  and  crossed  east  of  Cambrai. 

Through  them  all  the  armies  of  Germany  in 
France  and  Belgium  were  fed,  clothed,  armed, 
supplied  with  ammunition  and  reinforced  with 
men.  With  them  under  control  the  German 
armies  were  wonderfully  mobile;  divisions  could 
be  shifted  from  one  part  of  the  line  to  another 
far  away  with  great  speed.  Out  of  control — 
with  the  lines  of  the  Allies  so  close  that  they 
were  under  bombardment  by  artillery,  they 
would  be  useless.  Captured  at  any  point  they 
would  work  the  complete  defeat  of  Germany. 
The  German  High  Command  knew  all  this  as 
well  as  it  knew  everything  else  about  its  own 
chances  for  defeat  or  victory — which  was  very 


128    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

well,  indeed.  It  was  prepared  to  defend  these 
lines  to  its  last  resources  in  strategical  cunning 
and  in  men  and  arms. 

With  Metz  as  a  pivot  the  Germans  were  pre- 
pared to  swing  back  slowly  toward  the  east,  with- 
drawing no  more  rapidly  than  was  necessary  to 
keep  their  railroads  and  stores  under  control, 
and,  pulling  their  house  in  behind  them,  so  to 
speak,  retire  eventually  to  their  own  borders  and 
fight  forever.  They  had  only,  while  so  with- 
drawing, to  protect  such  of  their  railroad  centers 
as  Sedan,  Montmedy,  or  Longuyon  and  they 
would  get  away  in  good  order. 

The  objective  of  the  American  offensive  which 
began  September  26  was  Sedan,  more  than 
twenty-five  miles  away  from  lines  that  had  re- 
mained virtually  stationary  since  the  fall  of  1914. 

It  began  discouragingly  enough.  Endless  hills 
and  heavy  woods  were  in  its  path.  Of  nine 
American  divisions  that  jumped  off  out  of  the 
old  French  trenches  on  September  26  and  started 
through  the  barbed- wire  growths  and  pitfalls  and 
machine-gun  nests  of  four  years'  preparation, 
several  came  out  in  three  days  badly  shot  up. 


Through  the  Argonne  to  Sedan       129 

Many  of  them  had  had  no  previous  experience 
whatever  in  the  hne,  some  had  never  been  under 
shell-fire.  In  the  first  two  days  they  pushed 
ahead  seven  kilometers,  but  they  couldn't  keep 
it  up. 

Some  of  these  divisions  had  been  brought  di- 
rectly from  the  training  areas  and  plunged 
straightway  into  the  attack  on  September  26. 
They  had  never  been  under  shell-fire  before. 
They  had  never  heard  the  sound  of  a  German 
gun  or  the  whine  of  a  German  shell. 

There  stretched  up  ahead  of  them  on  the  left 
the  great  forest  of  Argonne,  turned  by  Boche 
military  ingenuity  into  an  almost  impenetrable, 
impregnable  jungle  of  wire,  mine-traps  and 
machine-guns.  Hill  lay  behind  hill  like  a  suc- 
cession of  bumps  in  a  roller-coaster  and  more 
deep  forests  were  spread  over  them.  Of  roads 
there  were  virtually  none.  Tanks  could  not  op- 
erate. And  ten  kilometers  from  the  line  the 
Germans  were  trying  to  hold  with  these  advan- 
tages was  the  famous  Kremhilde  Line! 

And  so,  finally,  the  "veteran"  American  divi- 
sions had  come  up  to  relieve  the  "youngsters." 


130    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

The  32nd  had  gone  in  and  battered  at  Romagne 
and  Cunel  without  success.  The  First  Division 
went  over  to  the  left,  captured  Hill  212  in  dash- 
ing style,  and  found  itself  up  against  the  Krem- 
hilde  Stellung. 

Thus  the  Argonne-Meuse  offensive  stood  on 
October  13,  more  than  two  weeks  after  its  launch- 
ing.   It  had  slowed  up ;  it  had  almost  stopped. 

The  Rainbow  Division,  having  waited  for  a 
week  in  this  hell-hole  of  a  Bois  de  Montfaucon, 
with  the  32nd's  efforts  just  ahead  of  it  bringing 
the  German  barrages  on  its  impotent  head  and 
the  filth  of  an  old  battlefield  soaking  into  its 
clothes  and  disposition,  now  got  the  word.  It 
took  over  the  brilliant  but  tired  First  Division's 
line  north  of  Fleville  and  Exermont  and  got  to 
work.  It  was  in  the  great  Argonne  drive  at 
last. 

^  vjr  flp  ^IP  y^  ^  l|p 

The  enemy's  stubborn  defense  of  Hill  288  and 
the  Cote  de  Chatillon  had  held  up  the  advance  of 
the  whole  army.  The  Rainbow's  part  in  the  ac- 
tual hard  fighting  in  the  Meuse-Argonne  opera- 
tion lasted  only  two  days,  for  in  that  time  it., 


Through  the  'Argovne  to  Sedan       131 

l)roke  through  the  defense  of  these  hills  and  cap- 
tured both  of  them. 

The  capture  of  the  Cote  de  Chatillon  was 
called,  at  the  time  it  occurred,  *'one  of  the  most 
brilliant  operations  of  the  whole  war."  It  may 
have  been  called  that  because  the  effect  of  it  was 
so  immediately  productive  of  disaster  to  the  Ger- 
mans, and  because  their  backward  movement  at 
once  doubled  its  speed,  and  because  everybody 
was  so  happy  about  it.  For  when  Cote  de  Cha- 
tillon fell  before  the  attack  of  the  Hainbow  Divi- 
sion, the  deadlock  on  the  Kremhilde  Stellung 
ended.  But  the  fighting  there  was  not  as  des- 
perate and  deadly  as  on  the  Ourcq  in  July. 

The  168th  from  Iowa  and  the  167th  from  Ala- 
bama started  the  attack  on  the  two  hills  on  the 
morning  of  October  14.  The  lowans'  position  in 
the  line  brought  Hill  288  and  the  Cote  de  Cha- 
tillon directly  in  their  path. 

One  may  almost  guess  from  the  briefness  of 
the  battle  that  there  was  little  about  it  of  the 
working  out  of  a  complicated  tactical  plan — that, 
on  the  contrary,  it  was  the  recklessness  of  the 
.assault  and  the  performance  of  individual  deeds 


132    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

of  courage  and  daring  that  won  the  fight  for  thft 
Rainbow.  And  that  actually  was  the  case,  ex- 
cept that  there  was  a  tactical  plan  to  the  extent 
that  the  dashing  assault  was  decided  upon  (after 
every  other  sort  of  tactical  plan  had  been  con- 
sidered) as  the  best  plan  of  all. 

You  may  best  know  how  the  hills  fell  by  know- 
ing what  the  men  did  who  took  them  from  the 
Germans. 

Tor  instance,  with  D  Company  of  the  168th, 
under  a  lieutenant  named  Spalding,  fighting 
from  the  Bois  de  Romagne  to  the  southeast  of 
the  Cote  de  Chatillon,  and  with  hot  machine-gun 
fire  sweeping  down  from  a  trench  on  the  right  of 
the  hill,  another  lieutenant  named  Ely  went  over 
with  about  half  a  platoon  and  cleaned  out  the 
whole  trench,  capturing  twenty  Germans. 

Tuilleries  Farm  was  in  the  way  of  any  ad- 
vance to  Hill  288 — a  vicious  nest  of  machine- 
guns.  Lieutenant  Breslin  of  A  Company  went 
up  there  with  a  patrol,  captured  the  guns  and 
the  Germans  and  brought  them  all  back. 

They  had  to  get  288  before  they  could  get 
Chatillon,  and  the  taking  of  288  made  Chatillon 


Through  the  Argoime  to  Sedan       133 

harder  to  capture  because  all  the  Germans  who 
possibly  could  ran  across  from  one  hill  to  the 
other  as  soon  as  the  Rainbows  came  upon  them. 
Companies  A,  B  and  C  of  the  168th  had  reached 
la  Mussarde  Farm  at  the  brow  of  the  hill,  ad- 
vancing in  combat  groups  with  everything  in  fine 
shape,  and  then  the  Germans  had  opened  up  with 
all  they  had — ^machine-guns,  Austrian  88's,  and 
minenwerfers.  The  Rainbow  men  made  one  dash 
for  the  hedgerow  around  the  farm,  and  the  Ger- 
mans scattered  like  rabbits  and  galloped  down 
the  hill  and  across  the  open  to  the  foot  of  the 
Cote  de  Chatillon. 

A  messenger  on  his  way  up  to  the  line  with  a 
message  for  Captain  Wilham  R.  Witherall,  then 
commanding  the  First  Battalion,  was  knocked 
flat  by  a  German  bullet  that  hit  a  pair  of  German 
field-glasses  hanging  around  his  neck  over  his 
chest.  The  message  told  Witherall  to  go  ahead 
and  take  the  Cote  de  Chatillon. 

The  barrage  started  at  ten  a.  m.,  and  at  ten- 
thirty  Witherall's  men  started  out  of  the  Bois  de 
Romagne  toward  the  Cote.  The  first  men  to 
come  out  were  killed  in  their  tracks.    Watching 


134    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

carefully  the  woods  across  the  clearing  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill,  the  captain  noticed  that  no  fire  at  all 
seemed  to  be  coming  from  one  little  patch  of  it — 
that,  in  fact,  the  Germans  seemed  to  have  turned 
their  backs  upon  it. 

So  he  started  a  platoon  of  C  Company  across 
with  Lieutenant  Miller.  From  farther  off  to  the 
right  they  came  out  toward  this  patch  of  woods 
at  a  dead  run — twenty  men — and  not  a  German 
machine-gun  opened  up. 

With  Miller's  platoon  now  behind  what  seemed 
to  be  the  Germans'  main  point  of  resistance 
around  the  foot  of  the  Cote  de  Chatillon,  things 
began  to  move  more  smoothly.  Witherall  saw 
a  little  group  of  machine-gunners  training  their 
piece  upon  some  H  Company  men  who  were 
coming  into  Tuileries  Farm.  He  leveled  his 
pistol  and  brought  down  two  of  them,  and  the 
rest  ducked  for  cover. 

Crossing  the  clearing  himself  and  getting  over 
safely,  the  battalion  commander,  rounding  the 
back  of  a  big  dugout  in  the  woods,  came  upon 
Corporal  Pruett  of  C  Company,  dancing  like  a 
madman  on  the  top  of  the  dugout,  waving  a  Ger- 


Through  the  'Argonne  to  Sedan       135 

man  "potato-masher"  grenade  and  yelling,  "I've 
got  'em.    I've  got  'em!" 

He  had  'em,  right  enough.  Sixty-four  Ger- 
man soldiers  and  four  officers  were  cowering  in 
that  dugout,  in  mortal  terror  lest  Pruett  should 
throw  the  grenade.  They  begged  Witherall  to 
call  him  off,  which  he  did,  and  they  all  went  back 
as  Pruett's  prisoners.  They  made  this  former 
Iowa  school-teacher  a  sergeant  on  the  spot,  and 
later  he  got  a  commission  and  the  Distinguished 
Service  Cross. 

Meanwhile  B  Company  was  still  in  the  Ro- 
magne  woods  under  direct  fire  from  the  machine- 
guns  that  C  Company  had  escaped.  Sergeant 
Clark  was  sent  with  four  men  to  round  up  the 
Boche  who  were  holding  up  B  Company.  These 
five  lowans  silenced  one  machine-gun  with  rifle 
fire,  and  killed  the  entire  crew  of  another. 

Whereupon  B  Company  came  out  of  the  Ro- 
magne  woods,  and  lounged  across  the  clearing  to 
the  Cote  de  Chatillon,  with  their  guns  slung  over 
their  shoulders  as  though  they  were  taking  a 
leisurely  hike  on  a  peaceful  country  road. 

With  the  men  scattered  through  the  woods 


186    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

and  around  the  German  dugouts  hunting  for 
prisoners,  word  came  up  that  the  Germans  were 
getting  together  for  a  counter-attack.  By  that 
time  the  Alabamians  of  the  167th  had  come  up 
on  the  left,  B  and  C  companies  of  the  168th  were 
reformed,  and  the  Germans  were  beaten  back. 

The  Alabamians  had  had  a  tough  fight  in  an- 
other part  of  the  Bois  de  Romagne.  They  were 
facing  the  left  slope  of  the  Cote  de  Chatillon, 
with  their  third  battalion,  under  !Major  Morris, 
in  the  front  and  the  other  two  battalions  in  sup- 
port. Before  they  took  their  side  of  the  Cote, 
however,  joining  up  with  the  lowans,  all  three 
battalions  were  in  the  fight — the  First  under 
Major  Jeorg,  and  the  Second  under  Captain 
Flowers. 

Private  Neibors  of  Idaho,  an  M  Company 
man  of  the  167th,  in  this  fight  won  the  Congres- 
sional Medal  of  Honor  for  one  of  the  most  as- 
tounding exploits  of  the  war.  Neibors  was 
wounded  and  left  behind  when  his  platoon  rolled 
back  before  the  ferocity  of  the  German  resist- 
ance, so  that  the  Germans  captured  him.  And 
that  night,  before  they  could  get  him  out  of  the 


Through  the  Argonne  to  Sedan       1^% 

zone  of  the  fighting  and  back  to  a  prison  camp, 
he  overpowered  his  guard  and  got  his  pistol,  then 
rounded  up  nine  more  Germans  and  marched 
them  all  back  into  the  Rainbow's  lines. 

During  the  German  counter-attack  Sergeant 
Atkinson  won  himself  a  Distinguished  Service 
Cross.  He  was  a  member  of  the  regimental 
Headquarters  Company,  serving  in  the  Stokes 
Mortar  platoon.  Being  out  ahead  of  his  platoon 
and  seeing  the  Germans  starting  forward,  Ser- 
geant Atkinson  had  to  think  and  act  quickly. 
Ordinarily  a  Stokes  Mortar  is  fired  from  a  firm 
base  built  solidly  into  the  ground.  But  Atkin- 
son had  no  time  to  build  a  base  for  his  gun,  so  he 
held  it  between  his  knees  and  fired  the  big  mortar 
bombs  point-blank  into  the  enemy.  Atkinson's 
work  did  probably  more  than  any  other  one  thing 
to  break  up  the  German  counter-attack  on  the 
Cote  de  Chatillon. 

The  strong-points  on  the  Kremhilde  Stellung 
were  now  in  the  hands  of  the  American  Army. 
The  back  of  the  German  resistance  in  the  Ar- 
gonne had  been  broken  at  last.  The  great  Ar- 
gonne drive  could  move  on  now.     It  did  move 


138    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

on,  starting  November  1,  with  the  greatest  artil- 
lery bombardment  in  history,  excepting  neither 
the  bombardments  in  the  Champagne  in  July  or 
in  the  Argonne  on  September  26. 

The  Rainbow  infantry  was  relieved  by  the 
Second  Division  on  October  31,  but  the  Rainbow 
artillery  stayed  to  help  with  the  bombardment 
next  morning.  This  included  General  Gatley's 
whole  67th  Artillery  Brigade  from  Minnesota, 
Illinois,  Indiana  and  Maryland,  besides  the  150th 
machine-gun  battalion  from  Wisconsin,  the  151st 
from  Georgia,  and  the  149th  from  Pennsylvania. 
These  machine-gunners  and  artillerymen  plowed 
holes  in  the  withering  German  defenses  that  the 
Germans  never  were  and  never  would  have  been 
able  to  patch  up. 

Having  dealt  the  staggering  blow  assigned  to 
it,  the  infantry  of  the  Rainbow  was  shifted  over 
to  the  left  and  given  a  running  start  toward  the 
city  that  had  been  the  goal  of  the  American  Army 
since  September  26 — Sedan! 

They  say  an  important  telephone  message  flew 
quietly  around  to  the  First,  the  77th  and  the 


Through  the  Argonne  to  "Sedan       139 

Rainbow  Divisions  on  November  1.  The  mes- 
sage was  "Sedan  regardless  of  boundaries!" 

This  meant  that  each  of  these  three  divisions 
was  to  try  to  get  to  Sedan  as  rapidly  as  it  could, 
paying  no  attention  to  the  limits  of  its  sector, 
squeezing  over  into  another  division's  sectors  if 
it  could  move  more  quickly  by  that  method;  but, 
above  all,  to  get  there. 

They  were  to  take  for  themselves  the  "right 
of  way,"  like  fire-fighting  companies  tearing  up 
a  busy  street  to  a  big  blaze.  The  Germans  were 
now  retreating  rapidly  all  along  the  line. 

The  Rainbow  Division,  struggling  northward 
through  the  terribly  wrecked  country,  found  it- 
self up  against  almost  impassable  barriers.  In 
desperation  Division  Headquarters  called  for  the 
Rainbow's  "Fighting  Engineers,"  the  South 
Carolinians  and  the  Calif ornians  who  had  fought 
as  infantry  on  the  Ourcq,  were  ready  to  fight  as 
infantry  against  the  Cote  de  Chatillon,  and  were 
now  hiking  as  infantry  toward  Sedan.  In  the 
situation  that  now  confronted  the  Rainbow  the 
engineers  were  wasting  their  time  as  infantry. 

At  midnight  on  November  4,  having  gotten  as 


140    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

far  as  Authe,  Division  Headquarters  learned 
that  the  causeway  across  the  Bar  Valley,  north  of 
Brieulles,  had  been  demolished  by  the  Germans 
in  their  retreat.  No  traffic — not  even  men  on  foot 
— could  get  across  it.  The  causeway  had  been 
about  one  thousand  feet  long,  crossing  a  marshy 
creek,  and  had  consisted  of  a  "fill"  fifteen  feet 
high.  In  this  artificial  road  the  Germans  had 
blown  mine  craters  every  seventy-five  feet;  in 
some  cases  the  holes  went  far  below  the  surface 
of  the  original  creek  bottom. 

The  "Fighting  Engineers"  discarded  their  in- 
fantry equipment  and  reassembled  their  engi- 
neering tools.  It  took  them  almost  all  morning 
to  get  their  stuff  ready,  for  they  had  been  fight- 
ing as  infantry  so  long  they  had  almost  lost  track 
of  the  implements  of  their  own  profession. 

With  Colonel  J.  M.  Johnson  and  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  W.  F.  R.  Johnson  commanding  the  regi- 
ment, the  engineers  worked  day  and  night  across 
the  Bar  Valley.  The  First  Battalion— all  South 
Carolinians — under  Major  A.  V.  Hooks,  built 
the  main  pass  across  the  marsh.  Major  Hooks 
had  a  heavy  cold  and  a  high  fever  when  his  men 


Through  the  Argonne  to  Sedan       141 

began  the  work,  but  he  stayed  by  them  and  com- 
pleted the  job  at  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of 
November  6.  At  that  hour  the  big  trucks  began 
coming  across,  pulled  from  the  other  side  by 
gangs  of  soldiers  with  long  ropes. 

On  ahead  of  the  Bar  Valley  bridges  had  been 
demolished  at  Petite  Armoises  and  Sy,  and  two 
bridges  in  the  forest  to  the  south  of  Sy  had  been 
blown  up.  On  these  they  put  to  work  the  Second 
Battalion  from  California,  under  Major  E.  B. 
Hayden.  Half  of  his  men  worked  with  salvaged 
German  engineering  tools. 

Some  of  the  engineers  got  one  day's  rations  in 
three  days.  All  of  them  worked  under  gas  and 
high-explosive  bombardments  from  the  artillery 
covering  the  German  retreat.  And  they  went 
on,  filling  up  holes  in  the  roads,  throwing  bridges 
across  ravines  and  streams,  until,  in  Harricourt, 
while  the  Germans  were  still  in  the  other  end  of 
the  town,  they  pushed  their  repairs  and  lines  of 
communication  up  to  the  Meuse  River.  They 
made  reconnaissances  of  the  Meuse,  looking  for 
possible  sites  for  bridges,  two  hundred  yards  in 
advance  of  the  infantry  outposts. 


142   The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

And  what,  all  this  time,  of  the  First  and  77th 
Divisions,  to  whom  had  come  as  well  as  to  the 
Rainbow,  the  order,  "Sedan  regardless  of  boun- 
daries"? 

As  they  had  started  off  on  November  1,  the 
42nd  had  had  the  extreme  left,  the  77th  had  been 
in  the  center  and  the  First  had  been  on  the  right. 
But  as  they  began  nearing  the  River  Meuse,  the 
First  had  begun  to  push  over  to  the  left.  The 
Meuse  flowed  northwest,  and  merely  to  reach  the 
river  bank  due  north  of  the  point  from  which  it 
had  started,  would  find  the  First  Division  still 
several  kilometers  away  from  Sedan  with  no  way 
to  reach  it  except  to  follow  the  bank  of  the 
stream  in  a  northwesterly  direction.  This  the 
First  had  started  to  do. 

Of  course,  it  ran  into  the  77th.  The  New 
Yorkers  were  very  tired.  The  start  of  the  "race 
for  Sedan"  had  found  the  First  comparatively 
fresh,  for  the  Rainbow  had  relieved  it  back  at 
Exermont  in  the  middle  of  October,  but  it  had 
found  the  77th  in  the  midst  of  the  same  battle  it 
had  been  fighting  for  many  days.  So  it  was  little 
trouble  for  the  First  to  speed  up  a  bit,  cut  di- 


Through  the  'Argonne  to  Sedan       14S 

rectly  across  the  path  of  the  weary  77th,  and 
head  northwest  along  the  river  toward  Sedan. 

Now,  the  path  of  the  42nd,  rough  as  it  was, 
led  directly  to  Sedan. 

It  was  on  the  night  of  November  6  that  a 
patrol  of  the  First  Division,  scouting  out  ahead 
to  feel  the  division's  way  through  a  country  that 
might  be  still  enemy-infested,  took  its  last 
"prisoner  of  war." 

A  lieutenant  had  command  of  the  patrol. 
They  had  crawled  up  under  the  cover  of  a  stone 
wall  near  Beaumeil  Farm,  about  thirty  kilometers 
from  Sedan.  The  outposts  of  the  165th  Infantry 
— the  old  69th  New  York — ^were  at  that  moment 
in  Wadlaincourt,  a  suburb  of  Sedan  on  the 
heights  overlooking  the  city  across  the  river,  but 
the  patrol  leader  did  not  know  that. 

All  he  saw  in  the  gathering  dusk  was  an  im- 
portant looking  officer  walking  around,  attired 
in  what  looked  like  a  gray  cape  and  a  visored 
cap  with  a  soft  crown,  not  unlike  those  the  Crown 
Prince  wore  in  his  pictures. 

Stealthily  the  lieutenant  led  out  his  patrol  and 
eagerly  they  leaped  upon  the  important  looking 


144    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

officer  and  made  him  a  prisoner.  And  they  got 
him  back  to  a  brigade  headquarters  of  the  First 
Division,  before  Brigadier- General  Douglas 
MacArthur,  commanding  the  84th  Brigade  of  the 
Rainbow  Division,  could  convince  them  that  it 
was  himself  and  not  an  officer  of  the  German 
Army. 

And  no  American  division  ever  really  reached 
Sedan.  The  Rainbow's  patrols  were  the  first 
into  Wadlaincourt,  and  then,  on  November  7,  all 
the  Americans  were  withdrawn  from  that  point 
and  the  French  were  the  first  to  enter  the  city. 

With  the  Rainbow  out  of  the  line  in  the  region 
of  Buzancy,  eleven  o'clock  of  the  morning  of 
November  11  arrived,  and  the  war  was  over. 


PART  TWO 


CHAPTER  IX 

ON  TO  GERMANY 

"Germany,  hey!"  growled  the  Rainhow 
doughboy,  giving  his  ragged  breeches  a  hitch. 
"How  many  kilomets  is  that?" 

And  that  was  all  he  cared  about  it. 

That  is  to  say,  that  was  all  he  let  anybody  else 
know  he  cared  about  it.  It  was  just  the  Rain- 
bow doughboy's  way.  Outwardly  nothing  im- 
pressed him  any  more,  not  even  the  tremendous 
fact  that  the  old  Rainbow  was  actually  going  to 
march  to  the  country  of  the  ancient  enemy,  as 
part  of  the  American  Army  of  Occupation. 

The  division  moved  from  Buzancy  to  Brande- 
ville,  getting  into  that  half -ruined  town  the  day 
after  the  Germans  got  out  of  it.  There  it  waited 
until  November  20,  being  newly  equipped  with 
clothes,  shoes  and  puttees,  and  getting  its  trans- 
portation into  shape.     There,  too,  its  old  com- 

147 


148    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

manding  general,  Charles  T.  Menoher,  left  it, 
and  General  C.  A.  F.  Flagler  took  command. 
General  Menoher  had  led  the  Rainbow  through 
all  its  battles. 

Divisions  that  were  not  going  into  Germany- 
were  stripped  of  motor  trucks,  touring  cars, 
motor-cycles  and  side-cars  to  speed  the  Rainbow 
on  the  high  roads  to  the  Rhine.  The  crippled, 
battered  things  that  had  toiled  behind  the  ad- 
vance on  every  front,  that  had  broken  their  backs 
and  ruptured  their  engines  to  bring  up  food  and 
ammunition,  were  sent  limping  back  to  that 
happy  hunting  ground  of  all  worn-out  army 
equipment — the  salvage  dump.  The  German 
army  had  planned  to  march  into  Paris  wearing 
brand-new  spiked  helmets.  The  Rainbow  would 
march  into  Germany,  all  in  holiday  duds. 

It  had  a  terrible  time  for  a  while,  though,  with 
its  new  pants.  Some  muddled  quartermaster  had 
sent  the  division  a  lot  of  clothes  built  for  an  army 
of  fat  men,  and  the  stuff  had  to  be  sent  back, 
while  the  division  waited. 

But  on  the  morning  of  November  20  it  started. 

Bugles  had  awakened  it  before  daybreak.    All 


Oft  to  German^/  149 

trucks  had  to  be  loaded  and  ready  to  start  by 
eight  o'clock.  Actually  they  were  ready  at  seven 
o'clock. 

Brandeville,  Stenay,  Dun-sur-Meuse,  all 
slowly  were  emptied  of  soldiers  as  the  army  from 
America  streamed  toward  the  north  and  east — 
herds  of  giant  trucks,  queues  of  plodding  sol- 
diers, endless  files  of  mingled  men,  horses  and 
field-guns — the  artillery ;  and  the  touring  cars  of 
staff  officers  weaving  through  traffic  tangles  in 
the  villages  and  jumping  out  upon  the  high- 
roads at  top  speed. 

Nothing  of  the  dreariness  of  war  was  in  the 
land,  unless  you  took  a  second  look  in  at  the 
doors  of  the  deserted  staff  offices  in  Brandeville, 
and  loused  afterward  over  what  you  had  seen. 
In  front  of  the  smoldering  ashes  of  the  log  fires 
the  returned  exiles  of  Brandeville  had  been 
standing,  surveying  the  old  homes  and  preparing 
to  start  life  again;  wondering,  probably,  where 
the  tables  and  chairs  were  coming  from,  what  to 
have  for  lunch  and  where  in  the  world  to  get  it. 
For  Brandeville  had  come  back  home. 

They  had  been  standing  around  like  that  all 


150    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

morning  while  the  men  were  clearing  out  the 
telephones  and  office  equipment  and  packing  up 
the  trucks — standing  in  the  corners  out  of  the 
way  of  the  rush  and  bustle,  watching  and  waiting. 

It  was  peace  weather,  too,  with  a  cloudless  sky 
and  brilliant  sunshine  that  warmed  you  through 
and  made  beautiful  sharp  etchings  of  the  roads 
ahead  and  the  valleys  below  and  the  autumn- 
tinted  woods  on  the  hills. 

Kight  at  the  start  the  trip  to  the  Rhine  was 
assuming  the  nature  of  a  vacational  jaunt 
through  a  New  England  countryside,  let  us  say 
— in  the  "Feel"  of  the  thing,  if  you  get  the  mean- 
ing. Same  scenery,  same  sort  of  roads  that  you 
had  been  seeing  during  months  of  trips  around 
the  rear  areas  of  rural  France.  But  this  was  the 
other  side  of  a  world  that  had  been  divided  for 
four  years — divided  as  though  by  a  great  wall  so 
that  neither  side  could  look  over  and  see  what  the 
other  side  was  doing.  Here,  suddenly,  was  the 
other  side,  disclosed  to  view  mile  by  mile. 

Exhilaration  grew  out  of  this  situation.  The 
foot-soldiers  felt  it.  On  their  backs  were  the 
same  heavy  packs  they  had  carried  on  night 


On  to  Germany  151 

marches  through  rain  and  mud  toward  a  morn- 
ing that  would  bring  a  battle — ^when  no  prospect 
stretched  before  them  but  more  night  marches 
and  more  battles,  more  rain  and  more  mud.  But 
this  was  bright  sunny  daylight,  and  there  lay 
ahead  good  billets,  sound  sleeQ,  leisurely  going 
— and  the  River  Rhine. 

So  they  were  a  fine-looking  bunch  as  they 
swarmed  through  the  valleys  and  over  the  hills — j 
fresh-faced,  clear-eyed,  with  a  pep  instead  of  a 
slog  to  their  gait. 

At  noon  they  reached  Montmedy,  the  halting 
place  for  the  day. 

On  the  outskirts  of  the  town  was  the  big  Ger- 
man railhead  for  which  the  Allied  "heavies"  had 
been  feeling  for  weeks.  Rroad  stretches  of  track 
were  interlaced  there  with  trains  of  empty  freight 
cars  standing  on  the  rails.  Through  the  open 
door  of  one  was  a  glimpse  of  a  big  printing  press 
and  on  the  outside  of  the  car  some  doughboy  had 
printed  with  a  piece  of  chalk  "Office  of  the  Daily 
Cabbage."  Across  the  road  in  a  fenced-in  area 
full  of  low  frame  buildings  where  supplies  for  a 
great  army  had  been  distributed,  smoke  tendrils 


152:    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

still  rose  lazily  from  two  great  charred  heaps  of 
cabbage. 

"Darned  glad  they  burned  it  up,"  said  Private 
Birckhead,  orderly  to  Major  Bob  Gill,  the  Assist- 
ant Chief  of  StafF.  *'If  they  hadn't  we'd  be 
havin'  cabbage  for  mess  from  now  till  we  got  to 
Germany." 

Major  Gill  stopped  his  car  and  from  the 
fenced-in  area  a  supply  captain  came  running. 

"Great  stuff!"  the  captain  shouted  through  the 
window.  "We  needed  a  lot  of  horseshoes  and 
the  Boche  left  two  cartloads  of  'em  here.  We've 
got  Lord  knows  how  many  gallons  of  kerosene 
and  a  couple  of  barrels  of  cup-grease — ^just  what 
we  needed ;  a  whole  heap  of  stuff." 

"Great  stuff!"  echoed  Major  Gill. 

So  they  moved  on  into  Montmedy,  where  the 
fighting  German  had  lived  and  moved  and  had 
his  way  with  the  citizenry  of  one  of  his  enemies 
since  1914.  They  rode  into  "Kronprinz  Strasse." 
This  German  street  name  was  painted  on  the 
housewall  and  the  old  French  name  had  been 
obliterated. 

French   and  American  flags  flew  from  the 


On  to  Germany  153 

upper  windows  of  nearly  every  house  on  Kron- 
prinz  Strasse.  Across  the  top  of  one  house  two 
big  signs  stood,  *'Vive  la  France !"  and  "Hurrah 
for  America!"  The  few  people  on  the  streets 
stopped  in  their  tracks  to  gaze  at  the  big  olive- 
drab  car  with  "U.  S."  painted  on  the  side.  They 
gazed  stolidly  and  curiously  without  the  wild 
emotion  popularly  imagined  back  home,  seem- 
ingly anxious  to  await  friendly  overtures  rather 
than  take  the  initiative  of  a  wild  welcome.  This 
same  calm  stolidity  persisted  throughout  the  city 
all  day,  in  every  Montmedy  native,  until  they  en- 
gaged in  personal  conversations.  And  then  the 
attitude  was  like  a  simple,  fervent,  *' Thank 
Heaven,  it's  over!"  Not  much  gabbling  and 
running  about  and  joyful  shouting.  Whatever 
of  that  sort  of  thing  the  people  of  delivered 
Montmedy  felt  like  doing  they  did  within  them- 
selves. 

Some  middle-aged  and  aged  gentlemen,  un- 
comfortably dignified  looking  in  high  silk  hats, 
long  black  frock  coats  and  low  collars  with  little 
bow  ties  of  white  linen,  were  coming  out  of  the 
houses  and  walking  up  Kronprinz  Strasse  toward 


154i    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

the  center  of  the  city.  Little  girls  and  boys,  bear- 
ing themselves  as  though  they  had  on  their  best 
clothes,  straggled  in  the  same  direction.  Women 
came  forth,  fussily  adjusting  their  puff -sleeved 
jackets.  Everybody's  shoes,  well  worn  and 
wrinkled,  were  painfully  polished.  A  sense  de- 
veloped in  the  air  that  a  municipal  ceremony  of 
some  sort  was  impending. 

There,  in  fact,  was  the  reason  for  the  apparent 
stolidity  in  the  greeting  to  the  Americans.  It 
wasn't  stolidity  at  all.  It  was  a  bit  of  embarrass- 
ment, like  the  embarrassment  of  a  young  actress 
making  her  debut.  Montmedy  was  making  her 
debut  to-day.  She  had  been  dead  for  four  years, 
and  to-day  she  was  being  born  again.  Up  around 
the  Maire — ^the  City  Hall  of  Montmedy — a 
crowd  stood,  stirring  with  suppressed  excitement 
whenever  an  automobile  or  a  truck  sped  around 
the  corner.  A  Gendarme  was  there,  keeping 
open  a  broad  lane  leading  up  to  the  door  of  the 
Maire,  and  his  bright  blue  uniform,  his  crisp 
mustache,  the  swell  of  his  chest  and  his  lofty  strut 
and  wave  of  the  hand  were  pleasant  symbols  of 
a  long-lost  power  regained. 


^  On  to  Germany  155 

Montmedy  was  waiting  to  welcome  the  Presi- 
dent of  France  and  Mme.  Poincare. 

The  Rainbow  Division  straightway  forgot  any 
little  disappointment  at  its  failure  to  create  a 
furore  and  proceeded  to  become  citizens  of  Mont- 
medy. When  the  Chief  of  France  and  his  wife 
arrived,  his  redeemed  children  and  their  Ameri- 
can redeemers  would  be  there,  side  by  side,  to 
greet  him.  The  doughboys,  who  got  their  billet- 
ing arrangements  straightened  out  quickly, 
hustled  down  to  the  Maire  and  joined  the  crowd. 
Two  military  policemen  from  the  Virginia  organ- 
ization in  the  Rainbow  Division  took  some  of  the 
gendarme's  precious  responsibility  away  from 
him  and  kept  American  motor  traffic  moving 
through  the  crowd  and  up  the  hill.  The  silk- 
hatted  City  Council  raked  up  an  American 
major-general.  General  Henry  P.  Allen,  the 
commander  of  the  90th  Division,  from  Texas  and 
Oklahoma,  which  was  coming  to  Montmedy  with 
the  Rainbow,  and  stood  him  in  their  midst  on  the 
Maire  steps  under  the  big  sign,  "Rathaus,"  which 
the  Germans  had  painted  over  the  door. 

President  Poincare  and  Mme.  Poincare  ar- 


156    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

rived  at  one  o'clock  with  a  triumphant  sweep  of 
automobiles  bearing  a  retinue  of  French  gen- 
erals and  colonels.  A  host  of  flags  shot  over  the 
heads  of  the  crowd,  and  the  roar  of  "Vive  la 
France"  was  repeated  many  times. 

It  was  an  unhappy  moment  for  the  three  little 
girls  and  three  little  boys  who  had  been  waiting 
for  hours  in  the  corridor  of  the  Maire  with 
bunches  of  flowers  for  the  President  and  his 
wife.  The  little  girls  had  been  standing  on  one 
side  of  the  hall  and  the  little  boys  on  the  other, 
whispering  and  giggling  to  each  other  and  jump- 
ing up  and  down  to  keep  warm,  for  their  mothers 
had  refused  to  hide  under  coats  and  hats  the 
glories  of  tri-colored  hair-ribbons,  white  dresses 
and  sashes,  and  combinations  of  blue  blouses,  red 
knickerbockers  and  white  stockings.  "Stand 
right  there,"  they  had  been  told,  "and  when  the 
President  and  Mme.  Poincare  come  through  the 
hall,  step  forward  politely  and  present  the 
flowers."  So,  though  a  breeze  swept  through  the 
hall,  they  had  not  moved  except  to  jump  up  and 
down. 

And  now  the  President  and  his  wife  were  down 


On  to  GerTTiany  157 

Ihere  on  the  steps  and  the  crowd  was  piling 
around  them  and  the  little  girls  and  hoys  were 
tiny  atoms  in  the  mass,  with  not  even  a  glimpse 
of  the  faces  of  the  chief  and  his  wife. 

The  little  girls  led  the  way  in  the  desperate 
rush  of  the  flower-bearers  of  Montmedy.  They 
whispered  excitedly  a  few  moments,  then 
plunged,  flowers  and  all,  into  the  crowd  of  chief 
citizens  who  were  presenting  a  wall  of  animated 
black  backs  to  them.  The  little  boys  followed.. 
Squirming  and  wriggling,  forgetful  of  the 
flowers  which  were  badly  mauled  in  the  struggle 
— forgetful  of  everything  but  that  they  must 
get  down  there  and  greet  the  President  of  France 
on  behalf  of  the  children  of  Montmedy — they 
pushed  through  and  reached  the  foot  of  the  steps 
— three  little  girls  and  three  little  boys,  with  their 
carefully  brushed  hair  all  frowzy  and  their  rib- 
bons and  best  clothes  all  awry. 

Mme.  Poincare  saw  them  first  and  she  aban- 
doned the  town's  chief  citizens  immediately. 
Stooping  down  at  the  imminent  risk  of  having 
her  hat  and  veil  torn  loose  by  the  crowd,  she 
hugged  the  little  girls  and  kissed  them,  then  she 


158    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

hugged  and  kissed  the  little  boys.  She  gave  the 
coat  of  the  President  of  France  a  gentle  tug, 
and  he,  too,  bade  the  Mayor  and  Council  desist 
for  a  moment  while  he  pinched  the  little  girls' 
cheeks  and  patted  the  little  boys'  heads,  bowing 
low  over  the  flowers  and  turning  them  over  to  a 
general,  who  turned  them  over  to  a  colonel,  who 
gave  them  to  the  President's  chaufi^eur,  who  put 
them  in  the  automobile. 

Luncheon  was  waiting  on  a  long  table  in  a  big 
hall  upstairs — more  food  than  the  folks  of  Mont- 
medy  had  seen  in  one  place  since  the  Germans 
came.  The  President  of  France  had  brought  it 
in  his  private  train  that  was  carrying  him  and 
Mme.  Poincare  from  city  to  city  in  reclaimed 
France.  Not  only  was  he  taking  with  him  the 
food  for  banquets  of  thanksgiving  in  the  re- 
deemed towns  and  cities,  but  he  was  taking  his 
own  cook,  his  ovm.  chef  and  his  own  waitresses. 

The  last  the  Rainbow  Division  saw  of  the 
President  of  France  and  his  wife,  they  were  trail- 
ing upstairs  at  the  head  of  the  procession  of 
happy  Councilmen,  with  the  generals  and  col- 
onels and  the  American  General,  going  to  lunch. 


On  to  Germany  159 

Whereupon  the  Rainbow  Division  spread  out 
through  the  city,  for  next  day  it  would  be  moving 
on  into  Belgium,  and  there  was  no  time  to  lose 
seeing  the  sights  and  gathering  souvenirs. 

Every  store  was  full  of  them,  crowding  up  to 
the  little  counters  behind  which  whole  families — 
from  grandparents  to  grandchildren — had  mob- 
ilized to  handle  the  sudden  rush  of  trade.  Long, 
lanky  boys  from  Kansas  and  Indiana  bought 
ruthlessly  of  stocks  of  feminine-looking  frip- 
peries. Stores  that  had  little  supplies  of  picture 
postcards,  paper  and  envelopes  were  cleaned  out 
in  a  half  hour. 

For  the  first  time  since  the  A.  E.  F.  became 
an  A.  E.  F.,  German  money  began  passing  back 
and  forth  in  transactions  between  American  sol- 
diers and  the  citizens  of  Europe.  The  shop- 
keepers of  Montmedy  had  a  lot  of  German 
money — ^not  a  lot,  either,  but  more  than  they  had 
of  any  other  money.  So  the  doughboys  got  back 
handfuls  of  marks  and  pfennigs  in  change  and 
went  on  their  way  rejoicing.    More  souvenirs! 

Uptown  was  the  "Deutsches  Theatre  An  Der 
Westfront."    A  new  show  was  going  on  inside — 


160    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

a  good  show  now.  The  old  one  had  been  playing 
there  for  four  years  and  it  was  a  rotten  perform- 
ance. The  world  had  stood  it  as  long  as  it  could, 
then  it  had  "egged"  the  actors  and  the  whole 
stock  company  was  beating  it  somewhere  off 
through  Belgium. 

But  this  new  one  was  a  peach.  The  sounds 
that  came  through  the  wide  open  windows  on  the 
second  floor  made  folks  on  the  street  stop  in  their 
tracks  and  shuffle  their  feet.  Above  the  ragtime 
lilt  of  a  piano  came  the  roar  of  an  American  sol- 
dier chorus,  "Take  Me  to  Dat  Darktown  Strut- 
ters' Ball!"  Four  soldiers,  leaning  comfortably 
over  the  withered  flower  boxes  on  the  balcony 
rails,  sang  the  song  out  into  the  street. 

A  red-haired  boy  from  Alabama  was  up  there 
at  a  big  grand  piano,  swaying  himself  and  his 
Angers  up  and  down  the  keys,  and  the  chorus 
was  crowded  around  him  five  rows  deep.  He  was 
a  wizard,  the  red-haired  boy.  He  sent  thrills  up 
and  down  your  back  and  made  you  stand  around 
and  shake  your  shoulders  when  you  knew  you 
ought  to  be  examining  this  German  theater  and 
marveling  at  it. 


On  to  Germany  161 

This  must  have  been  a  sort  of  club  room  for 
the  German  soldiery,  where  they  assembled  be- 
tween the  acts  and  sat  around  drinking  beer  and 
singing,  while  somebody  played  the  piano.  The 
beer  tables  were  still  there,  though  some  of  them 
were  overturned  and  smashed,  and  the  floors 
were  littered  with  debris.  Every  window  in  the 
place  was  smashed — not  from  bombing  or  shell- 
ing by  the  Allies,  for  the  windows  of  houses  in 
the  town  were  still  intact.  Just  before  they  left 
Montmedy  the  Boche  must  have  fired  through 
the  windows  from  the  street,  for  there  were  bul- 
let holes  through  the  plaster  in  the  back  walls 
and  splintered  glass  lay  all  over  the  floor  inside. 

Downstairs  was  the  theater.  It  was  a  per- 
fectly arranged  little  place,  with  seats  for  about 
six  hundred,  a  good-sized  stage,  a  gallery  with  a 
place  where  they  probably  worked  a  spotlight, 
and  signs  all  over  the  walls  "Rauchen  Verboten!" 
The  walls  were  paneled  and  tinted,  the  wooden 
strips  a  dark  mahogany  color  and  the  panels  a 
pale  sort  of  orange.  From  the  high  ceiling  hung 
clusters  of  crystal  lights,  shaded  with  orange  silk. 

All  this  decorative  artistry  revealing  a  chapter 


162    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

in  the  life  of  the  German  Army,  now  retiring  to 
its  own  borders  in  shame,  meant  nothing  to  the 
Americans  upstairs.  For  them  there  were  more 
thrills  in  standing  around  the  red-haired  Ala- 
bamian,  who  could  make  a  German  piano  speak 
English. 

The  Maryland  trench-mortar  battery  officers 
had  a  dinner  that  night.  Their  billet-hostess  had 
joyfully  assented  to  a  proposal  that  included  the 
turning  over  of  her  dining-room  and  her  table 
service  for  the  evening,  the  cooking  of  the  dinner 
and  the  usual  cleaning  up  processes.  All  the 
officers  were  to  furnish  was  the  food,  which,  in 
Montmedy,  was  the  main  thing,  the  other  details 
merely  trailing  along  as  pleasant  accompani- 
ments, but  not  necessities. 

And  so  they  dined  in  not  a  little  state  in  deliv- 
ered [Montmedy,  on  the  second  floor  of  the  big 
house  on  the  left  and  down  the  hill  about  two 
blocks,  above  the  "Deutsches  Theatre  an  Der 
Westfront."  On  clear,  still  nights  a  few  months 
ago  the  billet-hostess  and  her  husband  and 
daughters  could  probably  have  heard  the  sweet 
chorus  of  * 'Hi-lee,  Hi-lo"  from  the  stage  down 


On  to  Germany  163 

there,  and  caught  the  faint  perfume  of  limburger 
as  the  skinny  Dutchman  hit  the  fat  Dutchman 
in  the  stomach  with  a  board. 

It  was  a  great  dinner.  There  was  tender 
steak,  fresh  from  the  quartermaster,  and  fried 
potatoes,  fresh  from  the  commissary,  and  baked 
beans,  fresh  from  the  cans.  And  there  were 
coffee  and  white  bread  and  jam  made  of  whole 
strawberries. 

With  the  dishes  cleared  away  and  everybody 
fixed  with  fresh  cigarettes,  the  billet-hostess 
tiptoed  into  the  dining-room  with  a  scared  smile 
and  fairly  flew  at  the  opposite  v/all  with  out- 
stretched arms,  as  though  she  wanted  to  get  there 
before  somebody  tagged  her  and  made  her  "it." 

Now  this  was  an  ordinary-looking  wall.  It 
had  a  pale  sort  of  paper  on  it  and  a  few  very 
tasteful  etchings,  but  you  could  have  stared  at  it 
for  hours  and  never  have  seen  anything  about  it 
worth  running  at  as  one  would  run  at  the  last 
hot  fish-cake  on  the  free  lunch  counter.  All  of 
which  establishes  the  fact  that  when  Shakespeare 
said  "the  walls  have  ears"  he  was  only  partly 
right.    This  wall  had  something  else. 


164    The  Story  of  the  Rainhorv  Division 

The  lady,  who  was  very  thin  and  small,  with  a 
worried  countenance  on  which  were  several  moles 
trimmed  with  long,  curling  hairs,  passed  her  right 
hand  over  a  spot  in  this  wall,  which  opened  be- 
fore the  officers'  eyes.  From  the  opening  she 
took  a  bottle,  blew  some  dust  from  it,  and  closed 
the  wall  so  that  it  again  looked  like  any  other 
wall.  Whereupon  she  turned  around  and  ten- 
derly planted  the  bottle  on  the  table  and  stepped 
back  a  pace,  twisting  her  hands  in  her  apron  and 
murmuring. 

It  was  a  square,  fat  bottle,  and  it  bore  an  old 
label,  "Curasao,  Triple-sec."  She  explained  that 
it  had  been  hidden  in  the  wall  for  four  years, 
away  from  the  German  officers  who  had  lived  in 
her  house.  This  was  the  time  to  bring  it  out,  she 
thought,  when  "les  Americains,"  for  whom  noth- 
ing was  too  good,  were  her  guests. 

They  told  her  to  invite  in  her  husband  and  her 
daughter,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  evening  they 
sat,  all  three,  on  the  edge  of  the  divan — the  old 
gentleman  with  one  fat  cigar  between  his  fingers 
and  four  sticking  out  of  the  breast  pocket  of  his 
coat — ^gifts    from    the    officers — and    the    lady 


On  to  Germany  165 

and  her  daughter  sipping  the  Curasao  they  had 
hidden  for  four  years,  stroking  the  moles  on  their 
chins  and  listening  with  rapture  to  the  most  awe- 
inspiring  attempts  to  draw  harmonies  out  of 
"Picture  To-night  a  Field  of  Snowy  White"  and 
"Down  hy  the  Old  Mill  Stream"  that  had  ever 
been  heard.  And  when  a  member  of  the  party 
stood  up  and  recited  the  first  four  lines  of  "The 
Night  Before  Christmas,"  supplying  what  he 
had  forgotten  with  extemporized  gibberish  and 
wild  gestures,  they  apparently  thought  their 
house  was  being  honored  with  the  presence  of  a 
great  American  actor  and  probably  secretly 
stored  the  scene  away  in  their  memories  to  thrill 
future  generations  of  Montmedy. 

Next  morning,  through  more  bright  autumn 
sunshine,  trains  of  motor  trucks  crossed  the  bor- 
der into  Belgium,  full  of  young  men  who  waved 
their  winter  caps,  and  roared  "Knock  the  Rhine," 
which,  spelled  N-a-c-h  and  pronounced  with  a 
gargle,  was  a  perfectly  good  German  expression 
of  triumph. 


CHAPTER  X 

BELGIUM  LAUGHS  AQAIS 

Belgium  came  out  of  her  cellars,  bringing  her 
ancient  wines  and  her  precious  bits  of  brass  and 
tapestry,  when  the  American  Army  came 
through  on  the  highroads  to  the  Rhine.  As  prop- 
erly as  she  could,  Belgium  made  merry.  She 
had  almost  forgotten  how — she  had  entirely  for- 
gotten how — to  make  merry,  as  Americans  know 
the  term. 

But  she  got  what  merriment  she  could  out  of 
talking  about  her  four  and  a  half  years  of  slav- 
ery to  the  men  of  the  Rainbow  Division.  She 
could  talk  about  those  years  now,  because  they 
were  gone  and  the  slavery  was  over.  And  the 
wine  that  was  too  good  for  the  Germans,  and  the 
hospitality  that  the  Germans  demanded  with 
threatening  bayonets  (and  thought  they  were 
getting)  came  up  from  the  caves  that  the  Amer- 

166 


^Belgium  Laughs  Again  167 

icans  might  make  merry  and  teach  Belgium  to 
laugh  again. 

That  is  what  the  Rainbow  Division  did  in  the 
beautiful  old  citv  of  Arlon — it  retaught  Belgium 
how  to  laugh. 

First,  though,  let  me  tell  of  the  city  of  Virton, 
Belgium,  close  to  the  border  between  France  and 
Belgium,  which  was  the  first  city  in  Belgium  the 
Rainbow  Division  saw  on  its  march  to  the  Rhine. 
In  Virton  it  came  upon  the  last  of  the  German 
Army  in  Belgium — four  hundred  wounded  Ger- 
man soldiers  in  the  hospital  there,  with  the  hos- 
pital's full  complement  of  German  medical  offi- 
cers and  German  nurses. 

They  were  the  first  Germans  to  live  under  the 
flags  of  the  Allies,  From  the  tower  of  the  big 
hospital  were  flying,  on  the  day  the  Rainbow 
Division  was  in  and  around  Virton,  the  flags  of 
France,  Great  Britain,  Belgium  and  America. 

In  the  streets  the  men  of  the  Rainbow  met 
German  medical  officers.  The  situation  seemed 
to  produce  a  queer,  sudden  mixture  of  emotion 
in  both  Americans  and  Germans,  and  the  Ger- 
mans seemed  to  be  surer  of  themselves  than  the 


168    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Americans.  Probably  the  Germans  were  more 
certain  of  their  defeat  than  the  Americans  were 
that  they  believed  they  were  defeated.  At  any 
rate,  the  Germans  bowed  and  the  Americans 
simply  stared. 

Heaven  knows  the  men  of  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion had  seen  enough  Germans.  They  knew 
what  German  soldiers  looked  like,  dead  and  alive 
— or,  rather,  first  alive  and  then  dead.  Their 
ideas  of  what  to  do  when  they  saw  a  German 
soldier,  who  was  neither  wounded  nor  a  prisoner, 
included  most  of  the  things  the  world  puts  under 
the  heading  of  "Decisive  Action,"  but  it  certainly 
did  not  include  polite  bows.  Until  Virton  they 
had  seen  German  soldiers  only  on  battlefields — 
most  of  the  battlefields  of  the  four  years  of  the 
war.  They  had  never  seen  them  shopping  in  the 
streets  of  a  quiet  city,  carrying  bundles  in  their 
arms. 

So  that  it  was  a  queer  thing  to  watch  the  prog- 
ress of  the  young  German  soldier  walking  from 
shop  to  shop  in  Virton,  and  finally  striking  off 
up  the  broad,  tree-aisled  street  to  the  hospital — 
a  homey,  comfortable  street  like  a  shady  avenue 


Belgium  Laughs  Again  169 

in  an  American  college  town.  He  wore  a  neat- 
fitting  uniform  of  field-gray  and  a  gray  cap  like 
our  fatigue  cap,  with  a  black  patent-leather  visor. 
He  was  young  and  slim,  with  a  fresh  pink  face 
and  very  erect. 

Group  after  group  of  our  American  dough- 
boys he  passed — strolling  along  on  their  way  to 
the  regular  afternoon  "parley"  with  French 
shop-keepers — tall,  lean  boys  from  the  West  and 
South;  short,  stout,  snappy  little  fellows  from 
the  East;  Americans  from  all  over  the  United 
States,  talking  about  home,  old  fights,  the  com- 
ing arrival  in  Germany,  how  much  money  they 
had,  what  the  cooks  were  "coming  across  with," 
how  they  had  bawled  out  the  Sergeant  that  morn- 
ing and  would  do  it  again  if  he  got  gay,  and  what 
they  were  going  to  buy. 

And  whatever  they  were  talking  about,  they 
stopped  it  when  they  saw  the  young  German 
soldier  with  the  bundles. 

His  head  was  up  and  his  eyes  ahead  like  a  man 
on  parade,  but  as  he  passed  the  American  groups 
he  turned  his  eyes  toward  them,  inclined  his  head 


170    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

slightly  with  a  murmur  that  was  unintelligible, 
and  passed  on. 

Now,  apparently,  those  groups  of  Americans 
thought  no  more  of  returning  that  bow  than  they 
would  have  thought  of  returning  the  bow  of  one 
of  the  camels  in  a  circus  parade. 

**For  Pete's  sake,  did  you  see  that  bird  bow 
his  head?" 

"Yeah — whad  d'ye  know  about  that?  Mus' 
think  he  knows  us  I" 

"He  prob'ly  knows  ole  Slim  here.  Prob'ly 
tended  bar  back  home  in  some  rathskeller  where 
old  Slim  used  t'  hang  out." 

"Yeah,  and  he  can  take  me  back  to  that  ole 
rathskeller  toot-sweet  if  he  wants  to.  Jus'  so  he 
don't  put  no  knockout  drops  in  my  beer,  that's 
all." 

'  Won't  be  any  beer  when  you  get  back  there. 
Slim.    All  be  drinkin'  prune  juice  or  somethin'." 

"Tell  yuh  what  I  bet  about  these  Goimans," 
said  a  little  black-eyed  soldier  with  curly  black 
hair  and  a  high  curved  nose.  "Bet  yuh  they've 
been  told  to  try  to  get  in  good  with  the  American 


■Belgium  Laughs  Again  171 

Army  so  people  won't  believe  these  stories  about 
killin'  babies  an'  boinin'  choiches." 

"Well,  they  gotta  do  somethin'  more'n  bow  to 
get  in  good  with  me.  Cap'n  says  don't  frat-nize 
with  'em,  and  y'  ain't  goin'  to  see  me  frat-nizin'." 

"I  wouldn't  trust  ole  Slim  if  one  of  'em  says 
'Slim,  come  on  in  an'  have  a  stein  o'  Pils'ner 
beer.'" 

"Well,  now,  mebbe,"  Slim  began — and  then 
they  were  out  of  earshot  and  heading  toward  a 
postcard  shop  that  had  a  window  full  of  pictures 
of  Virton. 

If  the  orders  in  the  retreating  German  Army 
bade  those  left  behind  to  "try  to  get  in  good"  with 
the  American  Army,  they  were  certainly  useless 
orders,  so  far  as  the  Rainbow  Division  was  con- 
cerned. In  Virton  an  American  second  lieuten- 
ant put  a  German  medical  lieutenant  out  of  his 
billet.  The  German  had  lived  there  nearly  four 
years — as  long  as  the  hospital  had  been  in  opera- 
tion. He  had  German  pictures  on  the  walls — 
scenes  of  the  "Fatherland,"  groups  of  soldiers, 
girls,  and  so  on — and  he  had  made  a  homelike 
place  of  the  room,  with  an  electric  light  at  the 


172     The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

head  of  the  bed  and  a  reading  lamp  on  the  table 
and  all  his  books  and  records  in  orderly  cabinets 
around  the  walls. 

But  the  town  major  having  in  charge  the  list- 
ing and  distribution  of  the  billets  did  not  take 
into  account  the  fact  that  any  part  of  the  German 
Army  was  still  in  Virton.  So  far  as  he  was  con- 
cerned the  German  Army  had  gone  away  from 
there  and  was  still  going.  So  this  billet  in  the 
home  of  a  French  woman  came  to  be  listed  among 
the  billets  available  for  officers  of  the  Rainbow 
Division. 

They  say  the  German  was  scribbling  away  at 
his  table,  telling  the  folks  he'd  be  home  soon,  or 
something,  when  an  American  soldier,  the  lieu- 
tenant's orderly,  came  bumping  through  the 
door,  bending  under  a  bedding  roll  as  big  as  a 
piano,  and  dumped  it  down  on  the  floor  with  an 
awful  thud.  Behind  him  came  the  young  Ameri- 
can officer  with  a  musette  bag  over  his  shoulder 
and  a  suitcase.  Behind  the  American  officer 
came  the  lady  of  the  house. 

The  German  rose,  dropping  his  inky  pen  on 
the  paper — plainly  astounded. 


^Belgmm  Laughs  Again  173 

"I  think  this  is  my  billet,"  said  the  American 
coolly,  picking  a  corner  occupied  by  the  Ger- 
man's spare  boots  to  deposit  his  bag  and  suitcase, 
and  removing  the  boots  in  the  process.  "Yes?" 
said  the  German.  He  spoke  English  well.  He 
hesitated  a  second.  "I  have  lived  here  for  four 
years,"  he  ventured.  "Yes?"  said  the  American. 
Then  to  his  orderly,  "Any  w^ater  in  that  pitcher, 
Harry?  If  there  isn't,  ask  the  Madam  to  get 
some,  will  you?    I  want  to  wash  up." 

Without  another  word  the  German  left,  and 
came  back  with  his  own  orderly,  and  they  both 
proceeded  to  move  out  the  German's  house  fur- 
nishings, while  the  American  sloshed  his  face  and 
head  and  neck  in  the  cold  water,  brushed  his 
teeth  and  hair,  and  distributed  his  razor  and  toilet 
articles  around  on  the  wash  stand.  Not  a  word 
of  conversation  passed  between  the  American 
and  the  German  until,  as  the  latter  was  leaving 
with  the  last  of  his  stuff,  the  American  looked 
up  from  a  manicuring  operation,  and  said, 
"Sorry,  old  scout !"  The  German  closed  the  door 
softly,  with  never  a  reply. 

Wads  of  francs  from  the  parts  of  France  the 


174    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Germans  had  not  reached  piled  into  the  little 
money  boxes  of  the  Belgian  storekeepers,  who 
searched  their  poor  stocks  of  goods  again  and 
again  to  find  things  that  the  Americans  wanted. 
The  money  of  their  own  country  was  returning 
to  them  and  the  marks  and  pfennigs  they  had 
accumulated  during  the  German  occupation  went 
into  the  pockets  of  our  doughboys. 

They  were  poor  enough  stocks  of  goods, 
Heaven  knows,  what  with  the  ravages  of  the 
Boche  in  the  last  hours  before  he  left.  But  as 
though  they  were  business  folk  who  had  just  com- 
pleted a  big  deal,  American  soldiers  and  Virton 
citizens  sat  down  to  dinner  together  that  night 
in  many  a  Virton  kitchen  or  dining-room,  and 
savory  broiled  steak  and  hot  French  fried  pota- 
toes right  from  the  company's  cook,  lay  in  lordly 
state  on  hot  platters  before  them,  and  Madam 
poured  the  coffee  and  sat  down  in  the  midst  of 
the  young  Americans,  not  understanding  a  word 
of  the  jokes  they  roared  at,  or  the  stories  they 
listened  to  so  eagerly.  But  they  were  happy — 
Madam  and  Monsieur,  and  the  blushing  Made- 
moiselles— in  contemplation  of  the  serene-facei 


Belgium  Laughs  Again  175 

clear-eyed  boys  from  America,  and  of  their  hon- 
est laughter  and  sincere  interest  in  Madam  and 
Monsieur,  and  the  blushing  Mademoiselles,  and 
of  their  shameless  appetites  for  food. 

From  Brandeville  through  Montmedy  and 
Virton  and  beyond,  Northern  France  and  South- 
ern Belgium  had  seemed  strangely  well-pre- 
served for  having  been  war  countries  for  four 
years.  Even  near  Montmedy,  supply  depot  on 
the  Germans'  main  army  railroad  line  between 
Longuyon  and  Sedan,  which  had  been  within 
range  of  our  great  naval  guns  during  the  last 
weeks  of  the  war,  the  earth  was  but  little  torn 
with  shell-fire  and  the  villages  scarcely  at  all. 
Over  this  country  the  hastily-formed  armies  of 
France  had  fallen  back  during  the  fall  of  1914, 
offering  little  resistance  to  the  steady,  thoroughly 
planned  advance  of  the  German  force,  and  the 
villages  and  fields  here  lay  just  as  they  were  when 
the  horses  of  the  Uhlans  had  pranced  into  them 
and  they  were  claimed  for  Germany. 

Before  noon,  though,  rolling  onward  through 
Belgium,  the  Rainbow  Division  came  upon  the 
war's  first  ruins — the  wreckage  wrought  when 


176    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

black  despair  was  first  settling  over  Europe,  by 
guns  so  big  that  the  people  blanched  with  terror 
at  the  very  mention  of  them. 

They  were  ordinary  ruins,  just  like  those  the 
Rainbow  had  left  in  France.  People  walked 
among  them  trundling  wheel-barrows  or  pulling 
little  carts,  and  most  of  them  were  women — old 
women.  There  were  a  few  children  who  stood 
and  stared  at  the  slow  column  of  horses,  wagons, 
motors,  guns  and  men.  They  did  not  wave  their 
hands  or  clap  them.  What  these  tiny  Belgium 
children  knew  about  soldiers  didn't  call  for  wav- 
ings  or  clappings  of  hands.  Here  and  there  an 
older  girl,  standing  by  a  tangled  pile  of  rocks 
that  had  been  her  home,  waved  one  hand  steadily 
as  though  she  had  that  day  set  that  hand  aside 
for  waving  purposes  and  no  other.  The  older 
girls  understood  the  slow  moving  column  of  olive- 
drab. 

Shortly  afternoon  the  Rainbow  Division 
reached  the  city  of  Arlon. 

Crowning  a  broad  hill,  unobscured  from  view 
for  a  mile  along  the  broad,  shady  road,  Arlon  lay 
shining  in  the  sun  like  descriptions  of  old  Jeru- 


Belgium  Laughs  Again  177 

isalem — "with  tow'rs  of  gold  and  diadems  of 
enow."  Old  Rainbow  veterans,  starved  through 
long  months  of  fighting  among  wrecks  of  towns, 
for  the  sight  of  a  big  city,  rounded  the  curve  of 

the  road  and  saw  it.    "Wot  th' ,"  they  said, 

and  waxed  speechless. 

All  day  the  Rainbow  rolled  into  Arlon,  and 
Division  Headquarters  was  established  in  the 
center  of  the  city  in  the  great  government  build- 
ings on  the  Place,  where  in  some  of  the  rooms  the 
silk-covered  furniture,  tapestried  walls  and  rich, 
thick  carpets  were  unhurt,  and  in  others  were 
worn  and  slashed  and  heaped  up  with  dirty, 
worn-out  German  gas  masks  and  abandoned 
ammunition  cases.  It  was  beautiful,  the  interior 
of  this  great  building — ^with  the  beauty  of  an 
empty  conch-shell.  Hand-carved  cases  that  had 
held  precious  bronzes  were  opened  and  empty, 
the  faces  of  richly  carved  old  "Grandfather 
clocks"  were  empty,  the  walls  bare  of  pictures, 
the  heavy  tables  bare  of  covering. 

American  automobiles  standing  in  the  Place 
were  wonderful  museums  of  new  things  for  the 
children,  who  clambered  into  them  and  bounced 


178    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

up  and  down  on  the  cushioned  seats,  wiggled  the 
clutches  and  brakes  and  begged  to  be  taken  for 
rides.  The  humblest  looking  doughboy,  who 
probably  hadn't  drawn  a  new  pair  of  shoes  and 
leggings  yet,  and  who  had  lost  a  couple  of  but- 
tons from  his  overcoat  during  the  morning  mrrch, 
was  eyed,  as  he  walked  past  the  shops,  like  a 
million  dollar  movie  star,  and  wealthy  old  Arlon- 
ites  struggled  to  think  of  enough  English  to  ask 
him  to  dinner,  ending  the  struggle  by  dragging 
him  off. 

There  was  a  host  of  dinner  parties  in  Arlon 
that  night,  furnished  forth,  as  these  parties  in 
redeemed  France  and  Belgium  always  are,  with 
some  things  brought  by  the  soldiers  in  their  own 
hands  and  some  things  brought  from  the  dark 
cellars  by  the  citizenry.  For  a  dinner  party  in 
Arlon,  or  anywhere  else  in  Belgium,  was  a  diffi- 
cult problem  for  a  Belgian  to  handle  alone.  All 
the  butter,  eggs,  sugar  and  meat  that  the  retreat- 
ing German  army  could  lay  its  hands  on,  it  had 
taken  away  when  it  left  Belgium.  Sometimes 
the  Germans  had  asked  the  price,  and  sometimes 
they  hadn't,  though  nearly  always  they  had  laid 


Belgium  Laughs  Again  179, 

down  a  few  marks,  so  that  the  transaction  would 
be  only  semi-robbery. 

But  the  Belgians  supplied  the  wines  from  their 
hiding  places  in  the  cellars,  and  from  the  same 
hiding  places  they  brought  up  their  best  old  silver 
table  services  and  their  snowy  linens,  and  their 
bronze  statuary.  Lights  went  up,  and  old  clock 
faces  of  brass,  cut  out  and  hidden  from  the  brass- 
hungry  Germans,  went  back  into  the  clocks,  and 
there  was  band  music  and  a  glory  of  colored 
rockets  in  the  Place  at  night,  and  parading  and 
shouting  through  the  streets. 


CHAPTER  XI 

so  THIS  IS  GERMANY 

On  December  4,  after  a  two-day  trip  from 
Mersch,  Luxembourg,  Headquarters  of  the 
Rainbow  Division  reached  Welschbillig,  a  muddy 
little  German  village  of  about  four  hundred  peo- 
ple. The  Red  Cross  man  who  got  up  there  first 
so  urged  his  "Tin  Henry"  that  it  navigated  open 
fields,  ditches  and  steep  embanlonents,  passing 
several  miles  of  field  artillery,  infantry,  machine- 
gun  battalions,  engineer,  ammunition  and  supply 
trains,  staff  limousines,  and  other  miscellaneous 
vehicular  and  foot  traffic,  which  was  either  stuck 
in  the  mud,  pulling  up  to  let  something  pass  in 
the  opposite  direction  or  halting  from  sheer 
fatigue. 

The  "Tin  Henry,"  running  on  a  thimbleful 
of  gas,  rattling  in  every  rib,  asthmatic,  rheumatic, 
full  of  grip  and  pneumonia,  caught  up  to  the 

180 


So  This  is  Germany  181 

tail  of  the  column  in  Echternach,  passed  through 
the  completely  blocked  streets  by  climbing  on 
the  sidewalks,  crossed  the  bridge  over  the  Moselle 
behind  a  mule-drawn  machine-gun  cart  from  the 
Wisconsin  battalion,  and  brought  bitterness  into 
the  hearts  of  foot  soldiers  and  limousine  staff 
officers  alike  by  disappearing  over  hill  after  hill 
and  around  curve  after  curve,  so  that  it  was  in 
this  one-night  stand  by  four  p.  m.,  or  in  time  to 
get  a  billet  in  the  home  of  one  of  the  best  fam- 
ilies of  WelschbiUig.  A  cream  separator  buzzed 
away  downstairs,  and  somebody  was  working 
overtime  down  in  the  barn,  running  an  electri- 
cally operated  threshing  machine. 

Jingoism  had  gained  wide  influence  through- 
out the  Kainbow  Division  during  its  ten-day  halt 
on  the  borderland  between  Luxembourg  and 
Germany.  There  were  great  expectations  of 
sniping  by  the  German  population.  Since  it  w^as 
virtually  useless  to  hope  for  Christmas  at  home, 
the  Rainbow  Division  hoped  for  a  guerrilla  war- 
fare in  Germany.  The  more  imaginative  among 
them  conjured  up  pictures  of  themselves  sneak- 
ing from  doorway  to  doorway  in  Berlin,  exchang- 


182    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

ing  shots  with  members  of  the  Reichstag  con- 
cealed in  second-floor  bedrooms,  or  of  a  greeting 
from  across  the  border  with  a  fusillade  from  the 
farmers'  shotguns. 

But  the  only  fusillade  that  greeted  them  came 
from  the  official  United  States  Army  moving 
picture  cameras  set  up  on  the  German  side  of  the 
Echternach  Bridge.  And  from  there  all  the  way 
up  to  Welschbillig  soldiers  who  hoped  for  any 
more  excitement  than  that  arising  from  trying 
to  move  three-ton  trucks  up  slippery  hills  were 
disappointed. 

But  in  the  disappointment  there  was  as  much 
to  talk  about  and  to  argue  about  around  the  field 
kitchen  and  billets  as  there  would  have  been  if  a 
Ssniper  had  opened  up  from  each  tree  along  the 
road.  The  Welschbilligians,  instead  of  being 
guerrilla  fighters,  were  trying  to  be  regular  folks. 
Instead  of  potting  the  men  of  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion with  shotguns,  they  bombed  them  with  cups 
of  hot  barley  coffee,  gobs  of  honey,  and  armfuls 
of  firewood. 

It  was  the  first  experience  of  the  men  of  the 
42nd  Division  as  occupants  of  the  homes  of  the 


So  This  is  Germany  183 

nation  it  had  been  fighting  every  day  for  a  whole 
year.  They  were  not  quite  sure  what  to  do. 
There  were  General  Headquarters  orders  against 
"fraternizing"  with  German  villagers.  "Offi- 
cially" the  country  was  hostile.  The  business  of 
the  American  Army  here  was  to  stick  to  the  heels 
of  the  retreating  German  Army.  Theoretically, 
it  was  a  pursuit.  For  every  purpose,  except  the 
purpose  of  killing,  the  war  was  still  on  and  the 
armies  were  still  in  the  field. 

But  you  couldn't  fight  old  women  who  came 
hobbling  into  your  offices  at  the  head  of  parades 
of  a  dozen  kids,  all  loaded  down  with  firewood. 
And  you  couldn't  turn  an  unfraternal  back  on 
old  men  who  came  in  bringing  chairs  for  the 
office  force  to  sit  on.  It  put  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion in  something  of  a  dilemma. 

There  was  a  decided  dilemma  that  evemng 
around  the  office  of  the  Assistant  Chief  of  Staff 
in  charge  of  Transportation  and  Supply.  Lieut. 
Marcus  L.  Poteet  was  running  the  office,  while 
Major  Gill's  temporary  successor,  Major  Ber- 
tram, was  attending  to  some  work  in  his  Intelli- 
gence Department. 


184    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Every  two  or  three  minutes  there  came  shuf- 
fling into  this  office  an  old  woman — bent  almost 
double — chuckling  toothlessly,  and  wringing  her 
hands,  and  mumbling  in  German.  She  went  al- 
ways first  to  the  stove  and  looked  into  the  grate 
— an  easy  operation  for  her,  for  she  had  never  to 
stoop  over;  stooping  was  her  constant  attitude. 
Then,  with  plentiful  gestures  of  her  stiff  old 
hands,  she'd  poke  a  fresh  stick  of  wood  into  the 
fire.  Then  she'd  turn  around  and  make  a  brief 
address,  rapidly  bobbing  her  head,  which  was 
wrapped  in  a  black  shawl. 

Lieutenant  Poteet  and  Private  Cooney  and 
Sergeant-Ma j or  Walter  Davis  were  a  little  leery 
during  her  first  two  or  three  visits.  When  she 
ambled  out  after  feeding  the  stove  the  first  time 
they  braced  themselves  for  a  few  seconds  and 
held  their  breaths  in  case  the  stick  of  wood  might 
have  been  a  disguised  bomb.  But  nothing  hap- 
pened either  that  time  or  the  next,  or  the  next, 
so  when  she  turned  around  from  the  stove  after 
the  fourth  time,  and  made  her  little  speech.  Lieu- 
tenant Poteet  unbent  and  responded  with  a 
hearty  "Yah,  yah,  yah!" 


So  This  is  Germany  185 

In  two  minutes  she  was  back  with  a  pot  of 
coffee  which  she  planted  on  the  stove.  Her 
daughter  followed,  bearing  a  deep  bowl  full  of 
fried  potatoes.  Her  son,  a  discharged  German 
soldier  with  little  piggy  eyes  and  a  friendly  smile 
under  his  Kaiser  mustache,  brought  up  the  rear 
with  both  fists  full  of  knives  and  forks  and  a  red 
tablecloth  under  his  arm. 

*Tor  Pete's  sake,  they're  fraternizin',"  said 
Sergeant-Ma j or  Davis,  *'What're  y'  goin'  to 
do?" 

"I'm  goin'  to  eat,"  said  Private  Cooney.  So 
everybody  sat  up  to  the  table,  while  the  thin, 
rather  cross-eyed  daughter  went  back  to  the 
kitchen  to  bring  up  the  plates  and  cups. 

The  coff*ee  was  poor  stuff*,  being  made  out  of 
charred  barley,  so  they  put  into  each  cup  a  spoon- 
ful of  the  self-made  coffee  which  the  Army  car- 
ries around.  But  the  potatoes  were  fine,  and 
when  they  had  cleaned  out  the  bowl,  the  old  lady 
came  stooping  in  with  another  bowlful,  and  the 
daughter  brought  in  a  dish  of  honey,  and  the 
ex-soldier  got  on  his  knees  and  poked  around  the 
fire,  and  six  muddy,  greasy  children  came  in  with 


186    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

more  wood,  did  squads-left-into-line,  dumped  it 
on  the  floor,  squawked  "Achtung"  and  goose- 
stepped  out  in  single  file.  It  was  a  full  half- 
hour  before  the  adults  of  the  family  stopped 
standing  around,  grinning  and  muttering  and 
watching  them  eat. 

When  they  finally  cleaned  up  the  dishes,  rolled 
up  the  tablecloth  and  left.  Lieutenant  Poteet 
took  a  deep  pull  on  a  fresh  cigar  and  announced : 
"The  next  man  that  says  *  Yah'  to  that  old  woman 
gets  court-martialed.  One  more  *Yah'  and  she'll 
be  in  here  giving  everybody  a  shave,  a  haircut 
and  a  bath,  and  that'll  be  fraternizing." 

In  muddy  streets  and  plaster  walls  and  smells 
and  general  dreariness  on  a  wet,  misty  day,  this 
village  in  Germany  was  not  imlike  villages  of 
the  same  population  in  France.  The  Rainbow 
was  going  through  the  Rhine  provinces,  which, 
judging  from  one  day's  journey,  consisted  of  vast 
expanses  of  forest,  field  and  mountain,  with 
widely  scattered  villages. 

The  open  country  of  France  rolled  gently  and 
the  broad,  smooth  roads  opened  long  vistas,  and 
you  shot  along  on  a  straightaway  for  miles  and 


So  This  is  Germany  187 

miles.  But  from  Echternach  to  Welschbillig 
there  had  been  a  succession  of  hill  climbings  and 
coastings,  with  hairpin  curves  every  few  hundred 
feet.  Towering  mountains  rose  before  you,  and 
a  view  of  a  winding  road  was  lost  in  forest  a 
short  distance  ahead.  But  with  a  series  of  twists 
and  turns  and  a  constant  pull  up  grade  after 
grade,  you  found  yourself  on  the  very  top  of  the 
forest  and  the  ribbon  of  road  you  had  just  left 
below  looked  like  a  cowpath.  More  mountains 
on  all  sides  hemmed  in  your  range  of  vision. 
There  was  a  majestic  grandeur  about  it  all  with 
its  vast,  deep  silence,  and  it  would  have  been  more 
thrilling  if  one  hadn't  had  to  contemplate  it  all 
with  real  doubt  that  one  was  going  to  make  the 
next  hill,  and  the  next,  and  others  beyond. 

Thousands  upon  thousands  of  American 
doughboys — ^walking  with  their  packs  on  their 
backs,  piloting  three-ton  trucks  almost  as  wide 
as  the  roads  themselves,  driving  raw-boned  mules 
and  horses  already  tired  to  death  with  life  and 
the  hauling  of  heaving  wagons  and  cannon — all 
had  to  make  those  hills  to  reach  the  Rhine. 

Most  of  the  men  of  the  42nd  had  finished  the 


188    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

first  stage  of  the  march  and  were  settled  that 
night  in  the  kitchens  and  attics  here  around 
around  Welschbillig.  They  knew  the  rule 
against  "fraternizing,"  but  all  the  rules  in  the 
world  couldn't  keep  an  American  soldier  from 
making  himself  at  home,  even  though  a  picture 
of  a  man  his  own  regiment  killed  in  the  Cham- 
pagne a  few  weeks  ago  hung  over  his  head  as  he 
tilts  his  chair  against  the  dining-room  wall. 

That  thing  happened  in  Welschbillig.  The 
dead  German  soldier's  mother  was  pottering 
around  the  fire,  where  the  Yank's  mud-soaked 
shoes  were  drying,  and  the  little  sisters  and 
brothers — nearly  a  dozen,  all  told — were  lurking 
at  more  or  less  of  a  distance,  looking  at  his  socks 
and  his  clothes  and  his  face,  and  urging  each 
other  to  go  up  and  feel  of  his  belt  and  pistol  that 
hung  over  a  chair. 

If  fraternizing  consisted  of  taking  what  came 
your  way  and  making  the  best  of  it,  then  the 
Rainbow  Division  in  Germany  was  composed  of 
the  greatest  thirty-third  degree  fraternizers  in 
the  world. 

They  fraternized  that  night,  too,  down  where 


So  This  is  Germany  189! 

the  officers  of  the  Missouri  Signal  Battalion  were 
quartered — in  the  village  schoolhouse,  where  the 
schoolmaster  lived — but  it  was  fraternizing  of  a 
different  sort.  The  schoolmaster  spoke  a  little 
English,  and  Col.  Ruby  Garret  and  the  other 
Signal  officers  wanted  to  know  how  the  people  of 
Germany  felt  about  the  war,  now  that  it  was  all 
over.  The  schoolmaster  was  convinced  that  the 
Kaiser  was  all  right ;  he  had  had  a  bunch  of  un- 
fortunate rough-necks  for  friends,  that  was  all. 
If  he  had  had  his  way  the  war  never  would  have 
started.  But  all  Germany  was  glad  it  was  over, 
he  said. 

Unlike  the  farm  villages  of  France,  Welsch- 
billig's  muddy  street  corners  had  electric  lights, 
and  there  were  electric  lights  in  some  of  the  rough 
plaster  houses,  and  instead  of  great  open  chim- 
neys there  were  shiny  enameled  stoves.  And 
there  were  modern  mechanical  things  like  the 
cream  separator,  and  the  threshing  machine — 
entirely  unknown  in  rural  France,  apparently — 
which  were  still  buzzing  merrily  away,  though  it 
was  ten  o'clock.  Bits  of  the  old  "Kultur,"  un- 
doubtedly. 


CHAPTER  XII 


"die  wacht  am  rhein" 


Up  at  seven  o'clock,  on  the  road  through  a 
thick  fog,  and  into  Speicher  by  noon,  twenty-five 
kilometers  from  Welschbillig.  The  third  day  of 
the  Rainbow  Division's  march  to  the  Rhine  across 
German  soil  was  almost  over  and  to-morrow  it 
would  move  on  to  Birresborn. 

The  long  brown  columns  were  filtering  deeper 
into  Germany.  As  the  Belgians  did  when  the 
Germans  came  through  in  August,  1914,  the 
German  villagers  went  to  bed  now  with  the  rum- 
ble of  the  American  column  in  their  ears  and 
awoke  in  the  morning  still  hearing  it,  and  moved 
about  through  the  day  still  seeing  it,  and  dropped 
off  again  to  sleep  without  seeing  or  hearing  the 
end. 

They  knew  now  what  had  really  happened  on 
the  fighting  front  while  the  General  Stafi*  of  the 

190 


''Die  Wacht  'Am  Rheinf'  191 

German  Army  had  fed  them  on  fairy  tales  of 
victory  and  requisitioned  their  poultry  and  butter 
for  Berlin. 

This  village,  where  they  stayed  overnight  like 
an  immense  troupe  of  barnstormers,  was  bigger 
than  Welschbillig.  It  had  a  fair  little  hotel  with 
one  bathtub  that  was  full  of  spare  bed  clothing 
when  they  arrived.  The  bed  clothing  had  since 
been  stored  elsewhere,  for  Col.  Ruby  Garrett 
managed  to  close  a  deal  for  a  bath  in  the  tub. 
The  beautifully  enameled  hot-water  attachment 
on  the  tub  was  out  of  order  so  they  heated  the 
water  on  the  kitchen  stove  downstairs,  and  a 
broad-backed  German  girl  brought  it  up  in  five 
trips,  carrying  two  buckets  each  trip — five 
buckets  of  hot  water  and  five  buckets  of  cold. 
She  also  cleaned  out  the  tub  and  pulled  down  the 
shades  in  the  window  and  switched  on  the  light 
and  brought  in  a  rug  for  the  floor  and  showed 
signs  of  wanting  to  assist  at  the  scrubbing  fes- 
tivities. So  far  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  the 
Germans  would  not  do  to  make  the  American 
Army  of  Occupation  feel  at  home. 

The  wife  of  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel  (he. 


0192    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

by  the  way,  fought  against  the  British  at  Cam- 
brai  and  was  gassed)  even  smoked  a  cigarette. 
She  was  clearing  off  the  table  after  a  lunch  for 
six  officers,  and  a  sportive  major  thrust  his 
cigarette  case  toward  her  and  nodded  brightly. 
iWith  her  free  hand  she  very  gingerly  took  one 
and  started  to  stick  it  in  the  pocket  of  her  apron, 
"No,  no!"  insisted  the  major,  and  struck  a  match. 
So  she  put  the  cigarette  between  her  lips  and 
>vent  out  toward  the  kitchen  puffing  it,  with  her 
arms  full  of  dishes. 

A  minute  or  so  later  the  ex-Boche  soldier 
walked  past  the  kitchen  door  on  some  errand  and 
he  was  smoking  his  wife's  cigarette. 

They  probably  got  the  idea  that  it  was  the 
custom  for  American  women  to  smoke  and  that 
they  must  do  it,  too,  or  the  American  soldiers 
would  lose  their  tempers  and  shoot  up  the  town. 
When  a  red-cheeked  waitress  came  in  to  brush 
away  the  crumbs  and  the  major  tried  the  same 
stunt  on  her  and  she  stood  there  flustered  and 
uncertain,  Mrs.  Proprietor  spoke  quickly  and 
quietly  to  her  and  she  took  the  cigarette.    After 


''Die  Wacht  Am  Rliein''  193 

one  puff  she  fled  from  the  dining-room,  cough- 
ing and  gasping,   and  she  didn't  come  back. 

An  old  man  whose  son  and  daughter-in-law 
run  a  little  souvenir  and  postcard  shop  here  used 
to  live  in  Baltimore,  he  said.  He  had  worked  in 
a  steamfitter's  shop  and  his  most  vivid  recollec- 
tion of  the  city,  after  having  been  back  in  Ger- 
many for  twenty-six  years,  was  of  the  smells  that 
came  up  from  the  waterfront.  One  of  the  Bal- 
timoreans  he  remembered  best  was  Friederich, 
who,  he  declared,  built  the  City  Hall. 

"An'  dere  was  Schultz — he  voss  a  Choiman!" 
he'd  say,  trying  to  remember  old  names.  "An' 
Deiterich — ^he  voss  a  Choiman.  An'  Gus 
Schaefer — he  voss  a  Choiman.  Dey  voss  all 
Choimans." 

One  gathered  that  the  Baltimore  of  twenty-six 
years  ago  was  probably  a  suburb  of  Berlin,  but 
the  old  man  said  he  had  known  a  lot  of  other  men 
there  who  weren't  Germans,  but  he  couldn't  re- 
member their  names.  He  tried  to  sell  the  offi- 
cers some  pipes  with  deep  porcelain  bowls  deco- 
rated with  landscapes,  with  curved  stems  three 
feet  long  and  decorated  with  tassels  and  things, 


194    The  Story  of  the  Bainboiv  Division 

which  they  would  have  bought  if  they  had  had 
trucks  or  something  to  carry  them. 
! '  He  also  whispered  with  a  great  show  of  se- 
crecy that  nobody  in  Germany  liked  the  Kaiser 
— that  he  had  always  been  a  "voitless  bum" 
(those  were  his  exact  words — "a  voitless  bum"), 
and  that  the  "people  in  Berlin"  were  responsible 
for  everything  the  Germans  had  done  during  the 
war. 

"Dese  poor  peoples  oudt  here  didn't  have  nud- 
ding  to  do  wid  it,"  he  said.  "Dey  shouldn't  pay 
der  bills,  should  dey?" 

They  told  him  it  looked  very  much  as  though 
the  "poor  peeples  oudt  here"  would  have  to  chip 
in  a  little  because  everybody  else  seemed  to  be 
trying  to  crawl  from  under,  like  himself.  He 
looked  very  much  hurt. 

That  evening  down  at  the  Gasthaus  Gteisler, 
a  bunch  of  our  doughboys  permitted  themselves 
to  be  hypnotized  by  a  curly-haired  German  boy 
of  nineteen,  who  was  performing  miracles  on  the 
piano  in  the  room  adjoining  the  bar.  One  of  the 
Louisiana  Headquarters  Troop  men  had  been 
reeling  off  some  ragtime  with  a  rather  painful 


''Die  Wacht  Am  Bhein"  195 

two-fingered  bass  that  was  always  consistent  but 
not  always  harmonious,  when  the  boy  came  in 
and  stood  peering  at  the  crowd  through  a  pair  of 
thick  spectacles.  In  the  moment  or  two  of  si- 
lence that  followed  his  entry,  he  said  in  perfect 
English:  "Would  you  like  me  to  play  a  lit- 
tle?" 

"Sure,  go  ahead!"  the  soldiers  chorused,  and 
the  Headquarters  Troop  man  got  up  from  the 
piano. 

The  German  boy  sat  down,  rubbed  his  stiff 
curls,  adjusted  his  spectacles,  struck  a  few  ring- 
ing chords  and  launched  into  "The  Star  Span- 
gled Banner." 

He  played  for  more  than  an  hour  without  look- 
ing at  a  note  of  music.  "This  is  by  Schumann,'* 
he'd  announce,  and  then,  "Here's  a  Beethoven 
sonata,"  then  "This  is  an  American  song,  isn't 
it?"  and  he'd  play  something  from  light  opera. 
Some  of  the  other  things  he  played  were  also 
from  light  operas  that  were  first  produced  in 
America  but  the  German  boy  did  not  recognize 
them  all  as  bits  of  American  music.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  they  had  been  picked  up  bodily  from 


196   The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Germany  or  Austria  and  imported  to  American 
orchestra  pits. 

Just  before  the  end,  Mike,  the  Italian  attache 
of  the  Casual  Officers'  mess;  Steve,  the  waiter; 
the  top-sergeant  of  the  Headquarters  Troop,  two 
military  policemen  with  sidearms  on  and  a 
sprinkling  of  miscellaneous  soldiery  from  the 
United  States  of  America  were  frozen  in  vari- 
ous attitudes  around  the  back  room  of  this  lit- 
tle German  cafe,  leaning  on  the  table,  half-lying 
in  chairs,  hunched  on  the  floor  in  corners,  while 
the  oil  lamp  swinging  from  the  ceiling  burned 
up  unnoticed  with  a  black  smoke  and  the  curly- 
haired  German  musical  prodigy  played  "The 
Barcarolle."  Rippling  brooks  in  New  England — 
the  old  canoe  floating  up  the  Potomac  toward  a 
red  Sunday  sunset — ^moonlight  on  the  upper 
deck! 

With  a  swift  change  of  mood  the  boy  struck 
up  "Die  Wacht  Am  Rhein,"  and  the  shaven- 
headed  old  lad  who  had  been  tending  bar  came 
waltzing  in,  waving  his  long  pipe  and  roaring  the 
song.     The  doughboys  looked  at  him  and  grinned 


''Die  Wacht  'Am  Rheinf'  197j 

a  pitying  sort  of  grin,  but  Mike,  the  Italian  at- 
tache, glowered. 

"Steve,"  he  whispered  to  the  waiter  for  the 
Casual  Officers'  mess,  "Steve,  you  crown  him  for 
me,  will  you?    I  ain't  got  the  heart." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


"the  conquering  of  the  highroad" 


Next  morning,  on  its  way  to  Birresborn,  the 
Rainbow  Division  began  a  heart-breaking  battle 
with  the  roads  of  Germany.  Like  the  German 
Government  and  the  German  Army,  they  had 
broken — ^gone  to  pieces.  Collapsing  under  the 
steady  rain  and  the  hacking  hoofs  and  wheels  of 
the  invading  American  column,  they  were  trying 
to  halt  the  Rainbow  in  its  march  upon  the  Rhine. 
It  is  as  though  they  believed  the  last  struggle  was 
up  to  them. 

Our  soldiers  had  been  smelling  it  in  the  dis- 
tance, this  battle.  In  the  mountain  climbs,  the 
hairpin  curves,  the  slippery  slopes  that  began  on 
the  German  side  of  the  border  there  were  prophe- 
cies of  it.  But  they  didn't  expect  it  to  be  as 
tough  as  it  proved  to  be. 

Staff  officers  were  climbing  out  of  the  leather 

198 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"    199 

cushions  into  the  mud  this  particular  mornings 
to  push.  The  main  road  between  Speicher  and 
Birresborn  that  stacked  up  on  the  maps  with  the 
main  roads  of  France,  were  mudholes.  They 
looked  like  the  "before"  photographs  in  adver- 
tisements of  paving  material.  The  edges  were 
miles  of  sticky  strawberry  jam,  with  no  limit  to 
its  depth.  The  two  deep  ruts  down  the  middle 
made  by  the  wagons  of  the  retreating  German 
Army  were  snares  and  delusions.  Worried 
truck  drivers  and  harassed  staff  chauffeurs 
picked  these  ruts  instinctively,  as  a  locomotive 
picks  the  rails;  within  two  hundred  yards  their 
only  conceivable  salvation  had  tripped  them. 
The  ruts  were  too  deep ;  sometimes  the  wheels  of 
lighter  cars  were  clear  of  the  bottoms ;  the  heav- 
ier cars  were  mortised-and-tenoned  in  the  road- 
bed. 

And  the  roads  squirmed  and  curved  and 
climbed,  and  at  least  one  edge  of  most  of  them 
was  also  the  edge  of  a  precipitous  descent  through 
wild  forests  and  rocks. 

Under  the  best  conditions  it  was  not  the  easi- 
est thing  in  the  world  to  pick  up  an  American 


800    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Army  Division  and  move  it,  holding  it  together 
during  the  moving  and  keeping  it  fit  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  its  profession  at  every  moment.  Still 
less  easy  was  it  to  move  an  American  Army  di- 
vision every  morning  and  set  it  down  to  rest  every 
night,  repeating  that  process  day  after  day  and 
night  after  night  and  covering  twenty-five  kilo- 
meters or  so  every  day. 

The  strength  of  the  Rainhow  Division  march- 
ing into  Germany  was,  roughly,  twenty-three 
thousand  men,  about  the  population  of  the  city  of 
Cumberland,  Md.  Nearly  four  thousand  gal- 
lons of  gasoline  were  required  to  keep  its  motor 
transportation  moving  for  one  day.  Its  truck- 
carrying  capacity  was  close  to  one  thousand  tons. 
It  had  between  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  and 
three  hundred  giant  trucks.  Its  smaller  auto- 
mobiles numbered  about  forty. 

The  dope  seemed  to  be  that  the  Hainbow 
would  reach  the  Rhine  by  December  17.  The 
division  had  started  into  Germany  on  December 
2.  Looking  ahead,  the  Rainbow's  Quartermas- 
ter, Lieutenant- Colonel  George  F.  Graham,  of 
Texas,  must  have  figured  that  he  would  have  to 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"    201 

use  sixty  thousand  gallons  of  gasoline  on  the  trip 
at  the  lowest  estimate.  To  carry  sixty  thousand 
gallons  of  gasoline  for  fifteen  days  would  be  as 
impracticable  and  unwise  as  to  carry  food  suf- 
ficient for  that  length  of  time  and  in  such  enor- 
mous quantities.  Simple  principles  of  conserva- 
tion dictated  adherence  to  a  "base-of-supplies" 
system. 

So  that  when  the  42nd  Division  pulled  up  for 
the  night  and  announced  to  the  German  villag- 
ers, "We'll  stop  here ;  come  across  with  the  keys 
to  the  city,"  it  did  not  mean  that  the  day's  travel 
was  over.  Several  hundred  tons  of  trucks  had 
still  to  go  back  to  the  railroads  and  bring  up  the 
food  and  gasoline  for  another  day — the  food  and 
gasoline  and  equipment  to  replace  the  wear  and 
tear  of  the  day's  grind. 

Imagine  moving  Cumberland,  Md.,  like  that 
every  day,  or  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  or  Stamford, 
Conn.,  or  Pensacola,  Fla. 

The  Rainbow  Division,  veterans  of  the  whole 
American  Expeditionary  Force  in  point  of 
length  of  continuous  service  in  the  fighting  line, 
was  accustomed  enough  to  moving.    It  had  done 


202    The  Story  of  the  Rainbotv  Division 

more  moving  from  one  part  of  the  line  to  another 
than  any  other  American  division,  with  a  fight  at 
both  ends  of  the  move  more  often  than  not.  Mov- 
ing was  nothing — mere  detail  in  the  day's  work. 
And  so  far  as  moving  through  Germany  was  con- 
cerned, why,  that  would  be  a  vacation.  No 
shellholes  to  get  the  traffic  across,  no  ripped-up 
roads,  no  night  marching,  no  fighting.  Great! 
Certainly  would  like  to  be  going  home,  the 
42nd  Division  would,  but  this  was  the  next  best 
thing — seeing  Germany,  soldiering  de  luxe. 
Why,  this  was  a  pretty  fair  reward  for  a  year  of 
the  most  terrible  work  human  men  can  be  called 
upon  to  do.  To  be  sure,  some  birds  were  being 
sent  back  home,  but  they  were  replacement  divi- 
sions mostly.  Never  had  seen  a  fight,  some  of 
them  hadn't.  Let  'em  go !  This  Germany  trip 
was  the  thing! 

That  was  the  spirit  back  in  Brandeville, 
France,  when  the  4j2nd  was  waiting  for  its 
new  equipment  to  come  up — ^its  new  trucks, 
more  trucks  than  it  had  ever  had  before,  and  its 
new  clothes  and  its  new  passenger  automobiles. 
That  was  also  the  spirit  through  Belgium  and 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"    203 

Luxembourg,  where  the  days  dawned  clear  and 
warm,  and  where  the  work  of  "occupation"  was 
about  as  arduous  as  strolling  through  the  old 
cherry  orchard. 

Yet,  on  this  move  to  Birresborn  an  officer  said, 
**When  they  pick  an  Army  of  Occupation  after 
the  next  war,  count  me  out!" 

And  a  supply  officer  said,  "I'd  rather  supply 
three  regiments  in  the  front  line  of  an  attack 
than  try  to  keep  stuff  moving  up  behind  one  regi- 
ment along  roads  like  these." 

And  there  was  expressed  in  various  ways  the 
sentiment  that  fighting  a  war  is  preferable  to  oc- 
cupying the  conquered  enemy's  country,  when 
the  country  is  the  inhuman  sort  of  country  that 
this  German  country  is.  Forever,  in  the  minds 
of  the  Rainbow  Division  men  (I  can't  speak  for 
men  in  other  parts  of  the  Army  of  Occupation) , 
Germany  will  stand  as  the  symbol  of  the  utmost 
in  rotten  roads,  just  as  France  will  stand  as  the 
symbol  of  the  best.  And  this  discovery  of  how 
demoralized  roads  can  become,  is  apt  to  bring 
about  a  revolution  in  our  American  road  plans, 


204    The  Stori/  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

when  these  victims  of  Germany's  broken-backed 
roads  get  settled  at  home. 

A  detachment  of  two  hundred  men  worked 
from  truck  to  truck  that  day  along  the  roads  be- 
tween Kyllburg  and  St.  Thomas,  pulling  them 
out  of  the  mire  and  the  ditches.  It  took  the  com- 
bined strength  of  every  one  of  these  two  hundred 
men  to  move  these  trucks,  for  they  were  loaded 
with  tons  of  supplies.  Sometimes  the  releasing 
of  one  truck  opened  the  way  for  a  whole  train 
of  others  that  were  not  heavily  loaded.  Some- 
times the  crew  of  two  hundred  truck-pullers  had 
to  tow  each  truck  several  hundred  yards  to  the 
beginning  of  a  stretch  of  firm  road,  then  go  back 
for  the  others,  one  at  a  time.  Elsewhere  on  the 
roads,  no  gang  of  men  being  available,  two  or 
three  trucks  that  had  managed  to  keep  out  of 
trouble  would  be  pushing  and  pulling  a  loaded 
truck  that  had  gotten  into  trouble.  One  would 
be  pushing  and  two  pulling;  the  engines  would 
roar,  the  wheels  would  spin,  and  the  motor-mon- 
sters would  leap  and  tug,  panting  and  growling 
like  great  trapped  animals ;  and  finally,  clamping 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"    205 

their  teeth  on  something  solid  at  last,  slowly, 
painfully  drag  their  loins  up — ^up — and  out. 

"All  right— let's  go!"  and  the  men  who  "fight 
the  trucks"  would  be  off  down  the  road,  slipping 
and  sliding  drunkenly,  fighting  forward  every 
inch  of  the  way,  maybe  for  two  hundred  yards 
without  a  halt. 

In  the  selection  of  divisions  to  form  the  Army 
of  Occupation  the  element  of  reward  for  extraor- 
dinary services  in  the  war  did  figure,  and  the 
men  knew  it.  That  is  why  they  were  so  cheer- 
ful as  they  toiled  up  the  red-muck  hills,  snaking 
trucks  out  of  ditches,  urging  tired  horses  to  an- 
other long  pull,  walking  with  feet  that  weighed 
many  times  more  than  ordinary  feet,  for  the  shoes 
of  the  infantry  gathered  the  German  mud  and 
grew  in  size  and  tonnage  like  the  snowball  roll- 
ing down  the  hill.  And  that,  in  fact,  is  why 
they  groused  about  it  when  they  settled  down 
for  an  evening  or  two  in  a  new  German  village 
a  little  nearer  the  river  Rhine;  for  no  soldier's 
vacation  was  complete  unless  he  could  sit  around 
of  an  evening  with  some  of  his  buddies  and  swap 
growls  and  kicks. 


206    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

They  had  wide-eyed,  open-mouthed  galleries 
now  in  the  kitchens  of  Germany.  Birresborn,  a 
town  about  as  big  as  Speicher,  was  a  two-night 
stand,  and  every  man  who  could  possibly  do  it 
had  hunted  himself  up  a  billet  in  some  German 
house.  By  four  o'clock  the  first  afternoon  the 
casual  officers'  mess  was  established  in  the  vil- 
lage Gasthaus,  a  phonograph  was  going  and  a 
group  of  officers  had  discovered  that  there  was 
exactly  one-half  of  a  keg  of  beer  left  in  the  vil- 
lage, and  had  chipped  in  and  bought  it — "just 
so  we'd  have  some  on  hand,"  one  of  them  said. 
By  five  o'clock  they  were  sitting  around  a  table 
beginning  the  evening's  grouse,  with  two  amazed 
German  women  watching  them  from  behind  the 
bar,  and  a  sepia-toned  picture  of  Wilhelm  II 
looking  down  at  them  from  the  wall.  That  night 
at  supper  the  captain-photographer  in  the 
Signal  Battalion  surveyed  the  officers  of  the 
42nd  Division,  seated  up  and  down  two  long 
tables  shoveling  in  food  and  dealing  out  conver- 
sation, while  the  Kaiser,  as  he  looked  in  the 
grand  old  days  before  the  ground  rose  up  and 
hit  him,  haughtily  contemplated  the  scene;  and 


'^The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad'*    207 

he  opined,  this  captain  photographer  did,  that 
this  certainly  would  make  a  fine  flashlight  for 
the  Rainbow  Division's  pictorial  record. 

But  he  never  took  it.  He  told  me  instead  how 
every  negative  of  the  division's  march  through 
France  and  Belgium  had  been  ruined  in  Luxem- 
burg when  a  bunch  of  little  Luxemburg  children, 
wondering  whether  the  nice  leather  case  wasn't 
full  of  that  precious  thing,  chocolate,  had  opened 
it,  pulled  out  the  plates  and  exposed  every  one 
to  the  light. 

But  coming  into  Germany  he  had  gotten  some 
good  stuff.  Spinning  along  in  his  Ford  truck 
he  sat  on  the  front  seat  and  the  sergeant  hung 
his  legs  over  the  tailgate,  and  between  them  both 
they  licked  the  German  scenery-platter  clean. 
That  morning  they  caught  a  group  of  Germans 
working  on  two  dead  horses.  They  had  just 
skinned  the  horses  and  the  photographer  had 
**shot"  the  whole  scene — one  German  rolling  up 
the  skins  and  putting  them  in  a  wheelbarrow; 
two  others  cutting  steaks  and  piling  them  into 
another  wheelbarrow,  and  the  rest  looking  on 
hungrily. 


608    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Leather  would  come  from  the  skins  probably 
end  the  steaks  would  trot  their  last  heat  from  the 
frying  pan  to  several  German  dining-room 
tables. 

Knowing  how  hard  up  Germany  is  for  leather 
everybody  was  surprised  to  hear  in  Birresborn 
the  story  about  Major  Bertram's  boots.  Major 
Bertram  was  intelligence  officer  of  the  42nd, 
but  as  the  work  of  an  intelligence  officer  in 
an  Army  of  Occupation  consists  principally 
of  repeating  every  day  "There  are  no  new  iden- 
tifications in  the  army,"  and  "There  are  no  new 
enemy  movements  to  report,"  Major  Bertram 
had  been  handling  Major  Bob  Gill's  job  while 
the  latter  was  in  the  hospital.  Major  Gill's  job 
was  the  job  of  moving  the  division — some  job. 

At  noon  Major  Bertram  had  started  for  Bir- 
resborn. Just  before  he  left  Speicher  the  Major 
remarked :  "Let's  run  back  to  Welschbillig  first. 
My  orderly  left  my  best  Cordovan  boots  back 
there.  I've  been  saving  them  for  the  big  entry 
into  Coblenz." 

'His  companions  in  the  big  limousine  remarked 
that  it  was  too  bad  the  orderly  had  forgotten 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"    209 

about  them,  and  they  certainly  hoped  he'd  find 
them,  hut  secretly  they  didn't  think  he  would, 
and  he  probably  didn't  think  so  either.  A 
leather-hungry  German  had  probably  pounced 
upon  them,  and,  by  some  miraculous  application 
of  Kultur,  had  turned  them  into  two  hundred 
pairs  of  shoes  worth  two  hundred  and  fifty  marks 
a  pair. 

Also  there  was  fresh  in  Lieutenant  Poteet's 
mind  the  strange  little  story  he  had  heard  that 
morning  from  his  orderly.  It  didn't  tend  to 
make  him  feel  hopeful  for  the  major's  boots.  I 
will  tell  that  story  presently. 

As  for  Major  Bertram  he  went  straight  to  his 
Welschbillig  billet,  was  in  the  house  about  three 
minutes,  and  came  out  grinning  all  over  and  tri- 
umphantly carrying  the  boots. 

"The  old  fellow  had  locked  them  in  his  safe 
so  that  nobody  would  steal  them,"  he  laughed. 
"Pretty  lucky,  eh?" 

**Well,  there's  one  honest  German,"  said  Lieu- 
tenant Poteet. 

Looking  at  it  from  that  angle,  Germany  so 
far  as  one  could  figure  it,  had  a  batting  average 


210    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

in  the  Honesty  League  of  about  .001.  If  the 
following  strange  story  had  had  a  different  end- 
ing it  might  have  been  .002.  And  this  is  the 
story  of  Lieutenant  Poteet's  orderly. 

The  orderly  had  fixed  up  the  lieutenant's  cot 
in  the  lieutenant's  room  and  had  fixed  his  own 
blankets  on  it,  preparatory  to  sleeping  there, 
while  the  lieutenant  slept  in  the  bed.  Then  the 
orderly  went  down  to  the  Welschbillig  school- 
house  to  sit  around  the  stove  for  a  while  with  a 
bunch  of  other  Kansas  men. 

When  he  came  back.  Lieutenant  Poteet  was 
in  bed,  but  not  asleep. 

"You  should  have  been  here,"  he  told  the  boy. 
"The  old  man  who  owns  this  place  was  up  here 
fraternizin'.  He  came  up  about  an  hour  ago  and 
went  fumbling  around  in  that  wardrobe.  He 
came  out  with  his  hands  full  of  cakes  shaped  like 
birds  and  animals  and  gave  me  one. 

"From  what  I  could  understand  tomorrow  is 
St.  Nicholas  Day  here  in  Germany — ^December 
6 — and  the  Weinachtsman  is  supposed  to  leave 
these  little  cakes  for  the  children.  It's  like  our 
Christmas.     He  gave  me  this  cake  shaped  like  a 


'^The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad'    211 

rabbit  as  a  St.  Nicholas  present.  I  wanted  to 
keep  it  as  a  souvenir,  but  the  old  man  insisted  on 
my  eating  it  right  away.     It  was  pretty  good." 

The  orderly  was  properly  sorry  he  hadn't  been 
around  when  this  little  bit  of  Christmas  cheer  was 
passing.  There  would  be  little  enough  Christ- 
mas over  here  anyway.  The  Germans  had  al- 
ways specialized  in  St.  Nicholas,  too.  They 
were  the  originators  of  Santa  Claus — started  him 
out  as  a  round,  fat,  white-whiskered,  apple- 
cheeked,  delightful  old  man  who  was  always 
laughing  and  giving  away  presents  around  the 
snow-and-holly  time.  He  was  wishing  he  had 
had  one  of  these  cakes — springling,  Poteet  had 
said  the  old  German  called  them — ^when  he  went 
to  sleep. 

In  the  morning  he  sat  on  the  edge  of  his  cot  to 
dress  and  reached  for  his  socks,  which  he  had  laid 
on  the  table  that  stood  against  the  wall.  Night 
before  the  light  of  the  single  candle  had  been 
dim  and  flickering  and  he  hadn't  noticed  the  table 
much.  He  noticed  it  now,  though.  It  was  full 
of  little  plaster  images  of  saints  and  there  was 


212    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

a  vase  of  artificial  roses  on  it  and  a  vase  of  some 
dried  grasses  and  a  picture  of  a  little  girl. 

By  the  picture  lay  something  that  made  the  or- 
derly start  and  rub  his  eyes.  It  was  a  "spring- 
ling" — a  St.  Nicholas  Day  cake — a  Christmas 
present.  The  old  man  had  put  it  there  for  him ! 
Well,  that  was  pretty  white  for  an  old  Boche. 

The  cake  was  shaped  on  the  rough,  general 
lines  of  a  rooster.  The  orderly  bit  a  piece  out 
of  it.  It  was  pretty  good.  He  decided  to  keep 
the  rest  and  take  it  home.  That  would  be  a 
great  souvenir  to  take  home — a  real  German  St. 
Nicholas  cake,  left  by  old  Santa  Claus  himself 
in  his  own  country,  which  had  just  been  licked 
by  the  Rainbow  Division,  et  al.  So  he  put  it 
in  his  pocket,  dressed  hurriedly,  dashed  down- 
stairs to  breakfast  in  the  old  German's  kitchen, 
where  he  and  some  other  orderlies  had  arranged 
for  mess  in  Welschbillig,  and  went  about  the 
work  of  getting  himself  and  his  lieutenant  ready 
to  move  on  to  Speicher. 

It  was  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  and 
he  was  halfway  there,  riding  on  a  baggage  truck, 
when  a  startling  thought  occurred  to  him.     He 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroad"    213 

had  felt  the  cake  in  his  pocket  and  his  mind  had 
gone  back  over  the  train  of  events  that  led  to  its 
being  there.  He  recalled  the  little  table,  and 
everything  about  it  stood  out  sharply  in  his  mem- 
ory. In  memory  it  had  a  strange  look  that  he 
hadn't  noticed  in  the  hurry  of  the  morning. 
There  was  something  sacred  about  it.  Those 
plaster  images — one  of  them  was  of  the  Saviour, 
he  remembered  now,  and  there  had  been  a  cruci- 
fix, too,  and  they  had  all  been  arranged  in  some 
order. 

And  that  picture;  the  cake  had  been  lying 
right  in  front  of  it.  It  was  a  picture  of  a  little 
girl  dressed  all  in  white,  with  a  wreath  around  her 
hair.  Her  first  communion  dress,  probably. 
She  must  have  been  the  old  man's  little  girl. 

Just  there,  apparently,  this  startling  thought 
hit  him  between  the  eyes.  Why,  that  table  was 
a  family  altar,  of  course  I  That  cake  hadn't  been 
put  there  for  him,  the  old  man  hadn't  even  known 
he  was  going  to  stay  in  the  room.  He  had  put 
the  cake  there  for  his  little  girl.  The  little  girl 
had  died.  They  probably  put  the  same  cake 
there  every  year  on  St.  Nicholas'  Eve. 


214    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Now,  this  Kansas  boy  was  like  every  other 
soldier  in  the  American  Army  of  Occupation. 
He  had  been  in  the  hardest  fights  in  the  war. 
He  hadn't  been  an  orderly  very  long,  he  had  been 
a  fighting,  hard-boiled,  rough-neck  doughboy  who 
knew  the  German  as  an  enemy,  for  he  had  seen 
the  German  trying  to  kill  him  and  actually  kill- 
ing some  of  his  buddies.  Like  every  other 
American  soldier,  he  had  approached  the  Ger- 
man border  with  some  hauteur  and  contempt, 
ready  at  the  flicker  of  an  eyelash  to  slug  to  his 
knees  the  first  German  who  tried  to  get  gay. 
And,  like  every  other  American,  he  had  been 
patting  the  dirty  little  German  kids'  heads  and 
smiling  at  the  old  women,  and  not  being  too 
coldly  distant  toward  the  village  girls,  and  being 
more  paternal  than  contemptuous  toward  the 
men,  ever  since  he  had  gotten  into  Germany. 

So  he  didn't  let  this  new  St.  Nicholas  Day  de- 
velopment worry  him  long,  but  hopped  off  the 
truck,  caught  one  going  back  to  Welschbillig, 
sneaked  into  the  old  house  and  up  the  stairs,  and 
with  his  overseas  cap  in  his  hand,  placed  the 
"springling"  back  on  the  table  in  front  of  the 


"The  Conquering  of  the  Highroaa"    215 

picture  of  the  little  girl  who  was  undoubtedly 
dead — the  "springling"  with  the  piece  he  had  bit- 
ten out  of  it.  Then  he  went  out  to  catch  another 
truck  for  Speicher,  feeling  deeply  at  peace  with 
everything  and  everybody.  The  poor  old  man's 
Christmas  offering  to  his  little  daughter  would 
not  go  astray  now.  These  Germans  might  be 
enemies,  but  the  war  was  over  now,  and  the  Ger- 
mans would  listen  to  American  doctrine  more 
earnestly  if  they  had  a  high  opinion  of  the  hon- 
esty of  American  soldiers.  Well,  he'd  done  his 
part. 

He  happened  to  catch  the  truck  on  which  the 
boy  who  had  cooked  for  their  mess  down  in  the 
German  kitchen,  was  going  to  Speicher.  It  was 
a  nice  little  mess — a  congenial  bunch  of  enlisted 
men  with  one  of  them  acting  as  cook  and  draw- 
ing all  the  rations,  and  with  nobody  butting  in. 

"What  d'ye  think?"  said  the  cook,  taking  one 
of  the  orderly's  cigarettes.  "Y'know  that  old 
rat-eyed  bird  back  there  where  we  ate?  Well 
y'know  we  had  three  whole  cans  of  bacon  last 
night.  This  old  bird  stole  the  other  two.  Sure 
as  you're  born!     Got  in  the  truck  after  they 


216    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

loaded  everything  in,  and  when  I  looked  around 
just  a  few  minutes  ago,  there  was  only  one  left. 
An'  the  ole  woman  was  cookin'  bacon  on  the  stove 
this  mornin',  too.  For  two  cents,  I'd  go  back 
there  and  crown  him  with  a  .45  but  what's  the 
use.  You  couldn't  prove  it  on  him,  but  he  stole 
it,  all  right." 

The  Kansas  boy  was  silent  for  a  long  while, 
and  it  wasn't  until  the  cook  had  forgotten  all 
about  it  that  he  said, 

"Why  didn't  you  tell  me  that  sooner,  cookie? 
I'd  like  to  go  back  an'  crown  him  myself." 

"  'S  too  late  now,"  said  the  cook. 

"Yes,"  said  the  Kansas  boy,  "  's  too  late," 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  BOCHE  UNMASKED 

Around  the  kitchen  stoves  of  the  formerly 
Imperial  Germany  the  greatest  of  indoor  sports 
for  the  Rainbow  Division  these  days  was  "cuss- 
ing" the  Kaiser. 

"Well,  what  d'ye  think  o'  the  Kaiser  now?" 
the  doughboys  would  drawl,  by  way  of  starting 
the  conversation,  as  they  hitched  up  the  kitchen 
chairs  of  an  evening  and  offered  the  cigarettes 
to  Mein  Herr  and  Meine  Frau  and  all  the  little 
"Hairs"  and  "frows"  who  were  numerous  even 
as  the  sands  of  the  sea,  and  that  is  no  joke.  One 
could  think  long  and  deeply  for  some  way  to  tell 
briefly  what  a  great  number  of  little  children 
there  were  in  Germany,  but  it  would  be  all  a 
waste  of  time,  because  just  as  soon  as  one  decided 
upon  a  nice,  high-sounding  set  of  words,  along 
would  come  new,  incredible  droves  of  children, 

217 


218    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

and  the  nice  words  would  not  be  fit  to  describe 
the  size  of  the  seventh  grade's  attendance  on  the 
morning  of  circus  day. 

Mein  Herr,  listening  keenly  to  the  doughboy, 
because  he  wanted  to  be  friendly,  would  catch 
the  word  "Kaiser."  The  rest  of  the  sentence 
wouldn't  mean  anything  to  him  at  all,  but  that 
word  "Kaiser"  would  be  enough  of  a  cue.  There 
was  the  place  for  the  entering  wedge. 

There  was  the  chance  to  drive  home  the  big 
idea — the  biggest  idea  that  that  part  of  Germany 
seemed  to  have  just  then. 

"Ach!"  snarled  Mein  Herr.  "Ach!  Kaiser 
Kaput!    Finish  Kaiser!    Kaput!" 

"Well,  well!"  said  the  doughboy,  somewhat 
surprised  and  somewhat  pleased,  too,  for  this  at- 
titude of  the  owner  of  his  billet  upon  the  subject 
of  the  Kaiser,  sort  of  put  a  common  understand- 
ing between  him  and  the  old  man.  "Why, 
maybe  he'll  come  across  with  some  eggs  for  lunch 
or  dinner  tonight,  and  maybe  the  old  woman  will 
trot  out  some  honey !" 

So  they  proceeded  with  words — stilted  mono- 
syllabic words  of  mingled  English  and  German, 


The  Boche  Unmasked  219[ 

with  now  and  then,  on  the  part  of  the  doughhoy, 
a  little  of  the  hard- won  French  that  was  too  good 
to  go  entirely  to  waste — to  vie  with  each  other 
at  drawing  and  quartering  the  Kaiser. 

The  hatred  of  the  American  soldier  for  the 
things  the  Kaiser  represents — or  represented — 
needs  no  introduction,  but  this  hatred  on  the  part 
of  the  German  people  in  the  country  through 
which  the  American  army  was  passing  probably 
does  need  an  introduction.  It  was  then  so  new 
that  the  German  people  had  not  had  time  yet  to 
take  down  the  pictures  of  the  Kaiser  and  Hin- 
denburg  and  Ludendorff  and  Bismarck  and  the 
Crown  Prince,  which  hung  over  their  heads  on 
the  kitchen  and  dining-room  walls  even  as  they 
hailed  curses  and  "kaputs."  They  still  deco- 
rated their  walls  with  likenesses  of  the  heroes  they; 
professed  to  hate. 

On  this,  the  second  day  of  Rainbow  Division 
Headquarters'  stay  in  Birresborn,  I  discovered 
in  my  room  a  picture  of  the  head  of  the  house- 
hold. Unless  you  looked  at  it  very  closely  you 
could  not  tell  that  the  picture  represented  the 
man  you  had  seen  downstairs.     It  had  been  taken 


220    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

in  Trier  four  years  ago,  when  the  old  gentleman, 
attired  in  his  best,  with  a  black  bow  tie  and  about 
three  inches  of  white  cuff  showing  at  his  wrists, 
looked  like  the  president  of  the  city  council  or 
the  superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School. 

But  Sunday  morning,  when  he  was  getting 
ready  to  go  to  church  with  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ters, he  looked  like  an  old  down-and-outer.  His 
threadbare,  wrinkled  coat,  of  no  particular  shade, 
was  buttoned  high  around  his  throat  to  cover  the 
lack  of  white  collar.  There  were  fringes  around 
his  wrists  instead  of  cuffs,  and  his  face  was  old 
and  seamed,  and  covered  with  a  stubble  of  beard. 
He  was  only  four  years  older;  he  had  not  taken 
to  drink  (in  fact,  as  the  village  brewer,  he  had 
begun  producing  mineral  water  instead  of  beer 
when  times  grew  hard),  and  he  was  still  a  re- 
spected figure  in  the  community.  But  he  had 
changed  entirely  in  appearance,  and  he  had 
changed  in  ideals  and  disposition. 

He  hated  everything.  He  hated  the  Kaiser 
and  drew  his  finger  suggestively  across  his  throat 
whenever  anybody  mentioned  the  word  "Kaiser." 
He  hated  the  ^'Berlin  crowd";  he  hated  Hinden- 


The  Boche  Unmasked  221 

burg  and  Ludendorff  and  the  Crown  Prince. 
He  hated  Von  Tirpitz. 

And  he  hated  also  the  Socialists  and  citizens 
who  were  handling  the  Government  of  Germany 
in  the  Kaiser's  absence,  and  just  to  round  out  the 
schedule,  he  professed  a  snippish  attitude  toward 
the  United  States  and  President  Wilson. 

Gold,  gold,  gold,  started  the  war,  he  would 
growl,  rubbing  his  thumbs  and  fingers  together. 
All  the  gang  in  Berlin  wanted  was  more  gold,  so 
they  started  the  war — or  rather  Russia  started  it. 

He  leaned  against  the  door- jamb,  looking  into 
his  dining-room,  where  six  Division  Headquar- 
ters sergeants  sat  around  the  table  smoking  after 
mess.  The  sergeant  in  charge  of  couriers  who 
was  translating  what  the  old  man  said,  wanted 
to  know  whether  the  United  States  had  come  into 
the  war  for  gold. 

The  German  exploded  a  forcible  "Yah!"  and 
uttered  the  names  of  "Rockefeller"  and  "Mor- 
gan." 

"He  says,"  translated  the  courier-sergeant, 
"that  Morgan  and  Rockefeller  got  the  United 


222    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

States  into  the  war."  The  sergeants  laughed 
long  and  loud. 

"Ask  him  if  Morgan  and  Rockefeller  sent  the 
submarines  out  to  sink  American  ships  and 
drown  American  citizens,"  asked  Sergeant 
"Slim"  Wilson.  The  courier-sergeant  asked 
him.  The  face  of  the  head  of  the  house  assumed 
a  tigerish  grin  as  he  answered. 

"He  says  the  submarines  would  have  won  the 
war  if  they  let  Von  Tirpitz  alone,"  declared  the 
interpreter. 

Apparently  he  hadn't  fully  understood  the 
question,  but,  unwittingly,  he  was  making  him- 
self clear  on  everything.  He  was  giving  these 
American  soldiers  a  picture  of  the  middle-class 
citizenry  of  Germany  as  it  looked  with  the  war 
over  and  lost. 

This  representative  middle-class  German 
hated  the  old  German  Government  for  starting 
the  war  because  it  hadn't  won  the  war.  He 
hated  the  United  States  because  the  United 
States  had  defeated  Germany.  He  hated  Von 
Tirpitz  because  he  had  started  the  submarine  war 
and  hadn't  finished  it. 


The  Boche  Unmasked  223 

We  wondered,  from  all  this,  why  he  hated  the 
new  government  which  was  repudiating  all  the 
things  for  which  the  old  war-losing  government 
had  stood. 

*'He  says,"  the  courier-sergeant  translated, 
"that  the  new  government  wants  to  take  his  chil- 
dren out  of  school  and  put  them  to  work,  and  he 
says  he  ain't  going  to  stand  for  it." 

We  had  gathered  that  he  was  talking  about 
something  that  infuriated  him  for  his  expression 
was  ferocious  and  as  he  talked  he  struck  an  open 
palm  with  a  clenched  fist. 

The  old  government  had  sapped  him  of  his 
substance  to  make  war.  The  new  government 
wanted  to  sacrifice  the  future  of  his  children  to 
the  present  reconstruction  needs  of  the  nation. 
He  and  his  family  were  middle-class  folk,  and 
the  end  of  the  war  had  caught  them  between  an 
upper  and  a  nether  millstone,  because  his  only 
concern  under  whatever  government  he  lived, 
had  been  for  the  selfish  welfare  of  himself  and 
his  family.  If  imperialism  and  victorious  war- 
fare could  bring  him  and  them  more  comforts, 
well  and  good.     But  imperialism  had  failed  him 


224    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

and  now  its  substitutes  were  failing  him,  so  damn 
them — all  of  them,  and  everything  that  was  mak- 
ing him  a  cheap  pawn. 

The  village  brewer  was  working  himself  into 
something  of  a  rage  under  the  questioning  of 
the  six  sergeants  and  their  patronizing  smiles  at 
his  answers,  so  they  stopped  suddenly.  "He'll 
begin  throwing  plates  around  in  a  minute,"  Ser- 
geant-Ma j  or  Walter  Davis  said. 

He  seemed  to  regret  his  outburst  because  later 
in  the  evening  he  came  upstairs  and  opened  two 
bottles  of  his  own  Birresborn  mineral  water  and 
sat  down  and  told  us  that  usually  during  that  sea- 
son the  snow  was  about  four  feet  deep,  and  that 
the  beer  crop  in  Germany  had  been  a  failure  for 
the  past  two  years. 

It  appeared  now,  though,  that  the  general  dis- 
position of  the  German  was  changing  every- 
where, at  least  everywhere  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion was  staying.  At  first  he  had  sneaked 
around  and  regarded  Americans  from  the  cor- 
ners of  his  eyes.  Then  he  had  stood  still  and 
looked  at  them  frankly  and  openly,  and  respect- 


The  Boche  Unmasked  225 

fully  touched  his  hat  when  they  glanced  in  his 
direction. 

Now  that  he  was  reassured — certain  that  the 
American  Army  intended  to  do  none  of  the  things 
he  had  been  taught  to  believe  Americans  did  to 
those  they  conquered — ^he  was  showing  that  his 
humility  was  a  mask,  and  the  "old  Boche"  in  him 
was  reappearing.  The  Germans  had  been  given 
the  inch  and  they  were  trying  to  get  away  with 
the  mile. 

It  seems  that  the  German  people  were  figuring 
that  the  simple-hearted  Americans  didn't  real- 
ize that  they  were  actually  conquerors  and  en- 
titled to  run  things  to  suit  themselves.  In  obedi- 
ence to  regulations,  the  American  troops  (they 
figured)  would  probably  try  to  requisition  wood 
and  forage  and  some  other  things  they  needed, 
but  had  not  word  arrived  from  down  the  road 
that  the  Americans  weren't  particular  about 
those  things  and  that  one  needn't  fear  the  con- 
sequences of  turning  them  down?     Sure  it  had  I 

So  in  the  village  of  Schlied  twenty  discharged 
German  soldiers  got  together  on  the  day  the 
117th  ammunition  train  from  Kansas  pulled  in 


226    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

and  decided  to  put  something  over.  They  sent 
a  spokesman  to  Major  Frank,  the  C.  O.,  to  in- 
form him  that  his  soldiers  could  not  requisition 
wood  and  forage  from  the  citizens  of  Schlied. 
The  spokesman  was  very  polite  about  it,  and  he 
was  very  sorry,  but  the  Americans  had  no  right 
to  this  forage  and  wood,  and  they,  the  citizens  of 
Schlied,  Germany — ex-soldiers  of  the  all-highest 
— didn't  propose  to  give  it  to  them. 

In  a  few  well-chosen  words — polite,  but  to  the 
point — Major  Frank  told  the  spokesman  to  get 
to  hell  out  of  his  office. 

He  ordered  the  Burgomaster  of  Schlied  to  ap- 
pear before  him  instantly.  The  Burgomaster 
appeared  and  Major  Frank  hitched  his  chair  up 
to  a  table,  picked  out  a  spot  of  its  top  that  looked 
as  though  it  would  stand  heavy  pounding  and 
launched  into  a  rollicking  old  chantey  with  bass- 
drum  accompaniment. 

"Your  village  has  insulted  the  American 
Army.  It  has  sent  a  discharged  soldier  of  the 
German  Army  to  tell  me  that  it  can't  have  things 
«r  do  things. 

"First  of  all,  neither  you  nor  any  other  Ger- 


The  Boche  Unmasked  227 

man  in  this  whole  acreage  of  limburger  can  tell 
me  what  American  troops  can  have  or  can't  have. 

"Second,  no  civilians  can  come  in  here  and  talk 
to  me  at  all.  And  if  I  want  to  say  anything  to 
this  gang  here  I'll  say  it  through  you,  and  I'll 
send  for  you  when  I  want  you. 

"Third,  no  more  conferences  of  prominent  cit- 
izens here.  If  I  hear  of  more  than  ten  people  in 
Schlied  gathering  together  in  one  place,  I'll  send 
armed  guards  to  scatter  'em, 

"And  lastly:  I  don't  expect  to  ask  your  peo- 
ple to  furnish  my  men  any  meat  or  bread,  or  any 
food  at  all.  The  American  Army  is  able  to  feed 
itself.  But  if  I  do  want  meat  or  bread  or  eggs 
or  butter,  you'll  furnish  it,  do  you  understand? 
And  whenever  I  want  hay,  hay  I'll  have !  When- 
ever I  want  wood,  wood  I'll  have!  You'll  get 
it  and  bring  it  where  I  tell  you  to,  and  you'll  get 
a  receipt  for  it,  and  that'll  be  the  end  of  it  until 
I  want  some  more !     Now,  get  out  of  here !" 

And  extravagant  rumor-hounds  do  say  that 
somebody  started  a  movement  in  Schlied  to  make 
the  Ammunition  Train  Major  the  first  Presi- 
dent of  Germany. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CASTLES  ON  THE  RHINE 

On  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  the  Rainbow  Divi- 
sion halted  on  the  fifteenth  of  December.  There, 
at  its  goal,  it  stood  as  it  had  stood  so  many  months 
before  on  the  "Valley  Forge  Hike"  through  the 
snow  from  Vaucouleurs  to  Rolampont — ^with  its 
bare  feet  sticking  out  of  its  shoes. 

For  the  Rainbow  had  walked  all  the  way,  from 
the  front  line  in  France  to  the  heart  of  Germany. 
The  food  it  needed  had  managed  to  follow  it. 
Its  wagons  and  trucks,  though  the  mud  had 
clutched  desperately  at  the  wheels,  had  managed 
to  keep  up.  But  the  shoes  it  wore  when  the 
march  ended  were  the  same  shoes  it  had  worn 
when  the  march  began.  French  railroads  had 
not  been  able  to  handle  food  for  the  American 
Army  of  Occupation  and  shoes  as  well. 

So  all  the  brave  finery  with  which  the  Rainbow 

228 


Castles  on  the  Rhine  229 

had  started  out  from  Brandeville  back  in  No- 
vember was  gone  now.  Redeemed  France  and 
Belgium  had  seen  some  of  it  and  had  been  prop- 
erly impressed.  But  Germany,  whose  own  sol- 
diers were  to  have  marched  into  Paris  glittering 
with  new  brass  and  silver  and  patent-leather,  saw 
in  the  newly  arrived  American  Army  of  Occu- 
pation (at  least  in  the  Rainbow  part  of  it),  a 
band  of  men  who  were  almost  ragamuffins. 

The  ragamuffins  brought  up  the  tail  end  of  the 
divisional  column.  Commanded  by  officers  who 
had  dropped  out  along  the  way  to  pick  up  the 
men  whose  marching  shoes  had  broken  down  un- 
der them,  they  made  a  sort  of  auxiliary  regiment. 

And  almost  immediately  they  went  from  raga- 
muffinism  to  a  state  of  baronial  opulence.  They 
took  up  a  new  life  in  castles  on  the  Rhine. 

The  infantry  regiments  and  machine-gun  out- 
fits were  in  towns  on  the  very  bank  of  the  river. 
The  artillerymen  were  in  towns  from  ten  to 
twenty  kilometers  west  of  the  river.  Division 
Headquarters  was  in  Ahrweiler,  about  twenty 
kilometers  from  the  stream.  Coblenz  was  about 
thirty  kilometers  to  the  south;  Cologne,  where 


230    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

the  British  were,  about  the  same  distance  to  the 
north. 

Lordly  mountains  with  ancient  legends  fairly 
oozing  out  of  the  vapors  that  curled  around  their 
crests,  covered  the  earth.  Ruined  castles  that 
seemed  as  old  as  the  hills  themselves  etched 
ragged-edged  blotches  against  the  sky-line. 
Nearer  at  hand  were  modern  chateaus — ^rich- 
looking  summer  homes  surrounded  by  profes- 
sionally tended  gardens.  On  the  inlaid  wood 
and  marble  floors  of  these  the  men  of  the  Rain- 
bow dumped  their  duffle-bags,  packs  and  blan- 
ket-rolls and  made  themselves  at  home. 

Chaplain  Duff*y  of  the  old  69th  New  York 
took  over  a  suite  in  one  of  these  mansions  and 
established  himself  in  quarters  like  those  of  an 
oil  magnate.  Major  Winn,  commander  of  the 
Georgia  Machine-gun  Battalion,  went  bunking 
in  the  home  of  an  Italian  count  who  had  married 
some  years  ago  a  wealthy  American  woman  with 
a  home  and  property  in  Germany.  Sergeant 
Hank  Gowdy,  erstwhile  idol  of  baseball  fandom, 
established  himself  in  a  summer  palace  of  glass. 

In  the  town  of  Neuenahr  the  Minnesota  Field 


Castles  on  the.  Rhine  281 

Artillery  took  up  the  existence  of  a  regiment  of 
plethorically  rich  invalids,  occupying  every  hotel 
in  the  place  and  commandeering  the  famous  sul- 
phur baths  to  which  wealthy  folk  with  gout  and 
plain  rheumatism  had  journeyed  for  years  and 
years. 

And  there,  along  the  River  Rhine,  the  Rain- 
bow Division  stayed  for  nearly  four  months.  It 
floated  up  and  down  the  stream  on  excursion 
boats,  while  "bally-hoo  men"  in  Y.  M.  C.  A.  uni- 
forms with  Baedeker's  Guides  in  their  hands 
pointed  out  this  place  as  the  spot  where  the 
Lorelei  had  inaugurated  the  first  Boche  cam- 
paign of  frightfulness,  and  that  place  as  the 
hang-out  of  the  Bishop  of  Bingen,  and  this  as  the 
Fortress  of  Ehrenbreitstein,  and  so  on. 

And  the  doughboys  drank  it  all  in  and  shivered 
in  the  biting  winter  winds  that  swept  down  the 
river,  and  growled,  "Is  this  what  we  won  the  war 
for?"  and  wondered,  "When  do  we  eat?"  For 
that  is  the  way  of  the  doughboy. 

There  (as  I  said  before),  along  the  River 
Rhine,  we  will  end  the  story  of  the  Rainbow  Di- 
vision, leaving  it  sniffing  critically  at  the  glories 


232    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

of  the  German  scenery  and  "grousing"  about 
everything  in  the  world,  with  nothing  but  good- 
natured  ill-temper  over  everything  in  the  uni- 
verse except  the  vision  of  home. 

For  the  vision  of  home  was  always  a  glorious 
thing  to  the  Rainbow  Division — as  glorious  a 
thing  as  the  vision  to  the  nation  that  sent  them  of 
the  Rainbow's  career  on  the  fields  of  France. 
And  though  home  becomes  more  than  a  vision 
to  the  Rainbow,  the  Rainbow  will  never  be  more 
than  a  vision  to  home.  It  paraded  our  streets 
and  the  home-folk  saw  it  marching,  but  they 
never  saw  it  fighting  and  never  can.  Of  that 
there  is  nothing  left  for  the  home-folk  but  poor, 
halting  stories — ^like  those  recounted  here. 


THE  END 


APPENDIX  I 

ROSTER  OF  RAINBOW  DIVISION  OFFICERS  AT 
CAMP  MILLS,  IN   OCTOBER,   1917 

PERSONNEL  OF  RAINBOW  DIVISION  STAFF 

Major  General  William  A.  Mann ..  Division    Commander. 

Captain  John  B.  Coulter   Aide-de-Camp. 

Colonel    Douglas    Mac  Arthur    Chief  of  Staff. 

Major  Samuel  R.  Cleaves   Asst.  to  C.  of  S. 

Major  William  N.  Hughes,  Jr.  Asst.  to  C.  of  S. 

Major  Francis  W.  Ralston   Division  Adjutant. 

Major  Marion  S.  Battle   Asst.   Div.    Adjutant. 

Lieut.  Col.  John  L.  DeWitt Division   Quartermaster. 

Lieut.  Col.  George  F.  Baltzell Division   Inspector. 

Lieut.  Col.  Blanton  Winship Judge  Advocate. 

Lieut.  Col.  J.  W.  Grissinger Division  Surgeon. 

Major  James  W.  Frew  Asst.   to   Div.   Surgeon. 

Major  David  S.   Fairchild    Asst.   to   Div.    Surgeon. 

Major  James  K.  Crain   Division  Ordnance  Officer. 

Lieut.  Col.  Hanson  B.  Black Division  Signal  Officer. 

Colonel  William  C.  Brown  Cavalry,  Attached. 

Captain  Oscar  W.  Underwood Cavalry,  Attached. 

Major  George  F.  Graham   Asst.   to  Div.   Quartermaster. 

Major  Allen  Potts    Asst.   to  Div.   Quartermaster. 

Captain  Marshall   F.    Sharp    Asst.   to  Div.   Quartermaster. 

Captain  George  W.  McLean   Asst.   to   Div.   Quartermaster. 

2nd  Lieut.  James  S.  Harvey Asst.   to  Div.   Quartermaster. 

2nd  Lieut.  Fred.  O.  Klackering Asst.   to  Div.   Quartermaster. 

2nd  Lieut.  John  P.  Clark Asst.   to  Div.   Quartermaster. 

Captain  Edw.  DuBois   Asst.  to  Div.  Surgeon. 

Captain  Thomas  A.  Burchman Asst.  to  Div.  Surgeon. 

1st  Lieut.  M.  P.  Lane  Asst.  to  Div.  Surgeon. 

233 


234   The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

1st  Lieut.  William  F.  Satchell   Asst.  to  Div.  Surgeon. 

1st  Lieut.  R.  McK.    McDowell    ....  Asst.  to  Div.  Surgeon. 

1st  Lieut.  G.  C.  Van  Sickle   Asst.  to  Div.  Surgeon. 

1st  Lieut.  D.  J.  Downey Div.   Statistical   Section. 

2nd  Lieut.  G.  B.   Norton    Div.   Statistical   Section. 

end  Lieut.  Don  C.  Sims   Div.   Statistical   Section. 

1st  Lieut.  W.  S.   Murray   Interpreter. 

2nd  Lieut.  F.  R.  Wulsin Interpreter. 

HEADQUARTERS  TROOP 
(1st    Separate    Troop,    Louisiana    Cavalry) 
Captain  Louis  J.  Taylor   Commanding  Officer. 

149th   machine   gun   battaliox 
(Cos.  I,  K,  L  and  M,  4th  Pennsylvania  Infantry) 
Major  Quintin  O.   Reitzell   Commanding  Officer. 

BRIGADE    AND    REGIMENTAL   OFFICERS   OF   SSao   IN- 
FANTRY  BRIGADE   ON  OCTOBER   19,   1917 

Brigadier  General  Michael  J.  Lenihan . .  Brigade    Commander. 

Major  Wylie  T.   Conway    Brigade    Adjutant 

1st  Lieut.  Howard    Grose    

1st  Lieut.  Leon   W.    Miesse    

Pnd  Lieut  Roy   H.   Boberg   

165th  infantey 

(69th  New   York  Infantry) 

Colonel   Charles   Hine    Regimental   Commander. 

Lieut.  Col.  Latham  R.  Reed 

Major  Timothy  J.   Moynahan   C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 

Major  William  B.  Stacom   C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 

Major  William  J.  Donovan   C.  O.  3rd  Battalion. 

1st  Lieut.  Francis  P.  DuflFy  Chaplain. 

Major  George  J.  Lawrence   Regimental  Surgeon. 


Appendicc  I 


235 


166th    infantey 

(4th  Ohio  Infantry) 

Colonel  Benson  W.  Hough  Regimental   Commander. 

Lieut.  Col.  George  Florence  . . 
Captain  Charles  C.  Gusman   , 

Major  Roll  G.   Allen    

Major  Frank  D.  Henderson 
Major  Louis  D.  Houser  ... 
1st  Lieut.  J.  J.  Halliday  . . 
Captain  Fred  K.  Kislig 


..Regimental  Adjutant. 
. . .  C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 
.  ..C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 
. . .  C.  O.  3rd  Battalion. 
. . .  Chaplain. 
. . .  Regimental  Surgeon. 


150th   machine  gun  battalion 
{Cos.   Ay  B,   C,  2nd   Wisconsin  Infantry) 
Major  William  B.   Hall    Commanding  Oflficer. 

BRIGADE   AND   REGIMENTAL  OFFICERS   OF   84th   IN- 
FANTRY   BRIGADE    ON    OCTOBER    12,   1917 

Brigadier  General  Robert  A.  Brown   . .  Brigade  Commander. 

Major  S.  M.  Rumbough   Brigade  Adjutant. 

2nd  Lieut.  Geo.    B.    Mourning    Aide-de-Camp. 

2nd  Lieut.  David  W.  Oyler   Aide-de-Camp. 


167th  infantry 
{4th  Alabama  Infantry) 


Colonel  William  P.  Screws 
Lieut.  Col.  Walter  E.  Bare 
Major  Hartley  A.  Moon 
Major  Dallas  B.  Smith  . 
Major  John  W.  Carroll  . 
Captain  Robert  Joerg  . . . 
Major  John  W.  Watts   .. 


Regimental   Commander. 

. . .  C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 
. . .  C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 
...C.  O.  3rd  Battalion. 
. . .  Regimental  Adjutant. 
...Regimental  Surgeon. 


236    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

168th   infantry 

(3rd   Iowa   Infantry) 

Colonel  Ernest  R.  Bennett    Reginnental   Commander. 

Lieut.  Col.  Matthew  A.  Tinley 

Major  Guy  S.   Brewer    C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 

MaJOT  Claude  M.  Stanley C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 

Major  Emery   C.  Worthington    C.  O.  3rd  Battalion. 

Captain  Paul  I.  VanOrder  Regimental  Adjutant 

Winfred   E.   Robb    Chaplain. 

Major  Wilbur  S.  Conkling  Regimental  Surgeon. 

151ST     MACHINE     GUN     BATTALION 

(Cos.  B,  C  and  F,  Snd  Georgia  Infantry) 
Major  Cooper  D.  Winn    Commanding  Officer. 

BRIGADE  AND  REGIMENTAL  OFFICERS  OF  67th  FIELD 
ARTILLERY    BRIGADE    ON    OCTOBER    12,    1917 

Brigadier  Gen.  Charles  P.  Summerall  . .  Brigade  Commander. 

Captain  Max   E.   Payne    Attached. 

Captain  H.    R.   Denton    Attached. 

Captain  James   F.   Burns    Attached. 

1st  Lieut.  James  A.  Holt  Attached. 

1st  Lieut.  Stephen  M.  Foster Attached. 

2nd  Lieut.  L.  P.  Jerrard Attached. 

2nd  Lieut.  Rayman  K.  Aitken Attached. 

2nd  Lieut.  A.  B.  Butler Attached. 

2nd  Lieut.  De  Lano  Andrews Attached. 

149th   field  artilleht 

(1st  Illinois  Field  Artillery) 

Colonel  Henry  J.  Reilly   Regimental   Commander. 

Lieut.  Colonel  Ashbel  V.  Smith   

Major  Noble  B.  Judah,  Jr C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 

Major  Curtis   G.   Redden    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 


Appendix  I  237 

Captain  Jacob   McG.   Dickinson    

Captain  Hugh  R.  Montgomery  

Captain  Irving   Odell    

Major  Joseph  E.  Dowan  Regimental  Surgeon. 

150th  field  artillery,  heavy 

{1st   Indiana  Field  Artillery) 

Colonel  Robert  H.  Tyndall Regimental   Commander. 

Lieut.  Colonel  Thomas  S.  Wilson 

Major  Guy  A.  Wainwright  C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 

Major  Solon   J.    Carter    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 

Major  Marlin    A.    Prather    C.  O.  3rd  Battalion. 

Captain  Daniel  I.  Glossbrenner Regimental  Adjutant. 

Major  Frank  C.  Robinson   Regimental  Surgeon. 


151ST     FIELD     ARTILLERY 

{1st    Minnesota   Field   Artillery) 


Colonel  George  E.  Leach 

Lieut.  Colonel  William  H.  Donahue. 
Major  John   F.   McDonald    .... 

Major  Charles  A.  Green   

Captain  Lewis  C.  Coleman  .... 
Captain  Erwin  H.  Sherman  . . 
1st  Lieut.  William  J.  Harrington 


Regimental   Commander. 

C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 
C.  O.  2nd  Battalion. 


Chaplain. 


117th     TREXCH    MORTAR    BATTERY 

{Cos.    S   and   4,   Maryland    Coast    Artillery    Corps) 
Captain  Robert  J.  Gill   Commanding  Officer. 


117th  engineer  regiment 

{1st   Bn.,  1st   Sep.   Bn.   8.   C.   Engineers) 
{^nd  Bn.,   1st   Sep.   Bn.   Calif.   Engineers) 

Colonel   William   Kelly    Regimental   Commander. 

Lieut.  Colonel  Harold  S.  Hetrick 

Major  J.  M.  Johnson   C.  O.  1st  Battalion. 


238    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Major  Jay   A.   Given    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion, 

Captain  Elihu    Church    Regimental   Adjutant. 

Lieut.  Colonel  Harold  S.  Hetrick 

Captain  Albert  Pike    


117th   engineer   train 
(North   Carolina) 
Captain  Richard  D.  Clowe  Commanding  Officer. 

117th  ammunition  train 

(Kansas) 

Lieut.  Col.  Frank  L.  Travis Train  Commander. 

Captain   William    K.    Herndon    Adjutant. 

Major  George  J.   Frank    C.  O.  Horsed    Section. 

Major  Albert  H.  Herman  C.  O.  Motor  Section. 

117th  sitpplt  train 

(Texas) 

Major  Albert  E.  Devine   Train  Commander, 

1st  Lieut.  William  E.  Talbot Adjutant. 

117th   field   battalion   signal  corps 

Major  Ruby  D.  Garrett Battalion   Commander. 

1st  Lieut.  Glenn  O.  Brown Adjutant. 

117th   train   headquarters   and   military   polio 
(Virginia   Coa^t   Artillery   Corps) 
Major  R.  E.  Shannon  Commanding  Officer. 

117th  sanitary  train 
Captain  Dunning  S.  Wilson  ,  ,,:..,^,,.,.,. .  Director  of  Ambulances. 


Appendix  I  239 


165th  ambulance  compaky 
{1st  Ambulance  Com'pany,  New  Jersey) 
Captain  Peter   P.   RaflFerty    Commanding  Officer. 

166th  ambulance  company 
{1st  Ambulance   Company,   Tennessee) 
Captain  Percy  A.  Perkins   Commanding  Officer. 

167th    ambulance    company 
{1st  Ambulance  Com'pany,   Oklahoma) 
Captain  Hector  G.  Lareau  Commanding  Officer. 

168th    ambulance    company 
{1st  Ambulance   Company,  Michigan) 
Captain   Robert   J.    Baskerville    Commanding  Officer. 

FIELD    HOSPITAL   SECTION 
165th  field  hospital 
{1st   Field  Hospital,  Dist.   of  Columbia) 
Major  Herbert  J.  Bryson   Commanding  Officer. 

166th    field    hospital 
{1st    Field    Hospital,   Nebraska) 
Major  John  F.  Spealman  Commanding  Officer. 

167th   field   hospital 
{1st  Field  Hospital,  Oregon) 
Major  James  P.  Graham  Commanding  Officer. 


240   The  Story  of  the  Rainhow  Division 

168th  field  hospital 
{Ut  Field  Hospital,   Colorado) 
Major  Edward  W.  Lazell Commanding  Officer. 


APPENDIX  II 

EOSTER     OF     RAINBOW     DIVISION!     OFFICERS 
NOVEMBER  11,  1918 

PERSONNEL  OF   RAINBOW   DIVISION   STAFF 

Major  General  Charles  T.  Menoher. . .  Division  Commander 

ist  Lieut.  F.  W.  Wulsin Aide  de  Camp 

Colonel  William  N.  Hughes,  Jr.    ...  Cliief  of  Staff 

Major  Robert  J.  Gill  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-1 

1st  Lieut.  Marcus  L.  Poteet Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-1 

Lieut.  Col.  Noble  B.  Judah A.  C.  of  S.,  G-2 

Major  E.  H.  Bertram   Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-3 

Captain  John  A.  Greene   Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-2 

Lieut.  Col.  Grayson  H.  P.  Murphy...  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-3 

Captain  Roy  S.  Gault  Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-3 

1st  Lieut.  S.  Z.  Orgle Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-3 

1st  Lieut.  Thurlow  Brewer   Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-3 

1st  Lieut.  P.  E.  Sunstrom Asst.  to  A.  C.  of  S.,  G-3 

Lieut.  Col.  Stanley  M.  Rumbough....  Division    Adjutant 

Major  James  E.  Thomas  Act.  Division  Adjutant 

Captain  Dennis  J.  Downey   Statistical  OflScer 

1st  Lieut.  William  Bradford ;.  Asst.  to  Statistical  Officer 

1st  Lieut.  Walter  J.  Curley Asst.  to  Statistical  Officer 

Major  Albert  D.  Fetterman    Division    Inspector 

Lieut.  Col.  Hugh  W.  Ogden Judge    Advocate 

Lieut.  Col.  George  F.  Graham   Division  Quartermaster 

Major  Marshall  F.  Sharp Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

Captain  C.   A.   Cordingly    Asst.  to  Quartermaster 


Appendix  II  241 

Captain  R.    M.    Overstreet    Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

Captain  Paul  W.  Fechtman   Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

Captain  Edward    McMurry    Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

1st  Lieut.  John  P.  Clark Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

1st  Lieut.  Fred.  O.  Klakring Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

1st  Lieut.  George  Brown Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

2nd  Lieut.  Henry  R.   Black Asst.  to  Quartermaster 

Lieut.  Col.  David  S.  Fairchild Division  Surgeon 

Captain  A.  J.  Campbell Asst.  to  Division  Surgeon 

Major  Angus  Mclvor  Asst.  to  Division  Surgeon 

Major  Aquila  Mitchell   Division   Veterinarian 

Captain  R.   A.   Mead    Remount  OiScer 

Captain  Lewis  A.  Platts   Division  Dental  Surgeon 

1st  Lieut.  Wallace  S.  Murry Interpreter 

2nd  Lieut.  N.  B.  Adams Interpreter 

Major  John  A.  Wheeler Division   Ord.    Officer 

Lieut.  Col.  Ruby  D.  Garrett Division  Signal  Officer 

Captain  Charles   H.   Gorrill    Division   Gas  Officer 

Captain  E.  A.  Wilcox Asst.  Division  Gas  Officer 

1st  Lieut.  Chester  M.  Neff Asst.  Division  Gas  Officer 

Emory    C.    Worthington    Asst.  Provost  Marshal 

Major  Davis  G.  Arnold  , Zone  Major 

Captain  Morton  P.  Lane Asst.   to    Zone   Major 

Captain   James   E.   Berry    Asst.    to    Zone    Major 

Captain  William   Talbot Motor  Transportation  Offices 

find  Lieut.  F.  A.  Danforth Topographical   Officer 


HEADQUARTERS  TROOP 

Captain  Lee  R.  Caldwell   Commanding 

1st  Lieut.  Roy  S.  Miller 

149th    machine   guk   battalioit 

Major  James  H.  Palmer   Commanding 

1st  Lieut.  Joseph  R.  Cravath Adjutant 


242    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 
sshd  infantry  brigade 

150X11     MACHINE     OUK    BATTALIOK 

Captain  Lothar  G.  Graef Commanding 

Colonel   Henrjr   J.    Reilly    Commanding 

Major  WiUiam  T.  Doyle  Adjutant 

165Tn    INFANTRY    REGIJUENT 

Lieut.  Col.  Charles  A.  Dravo Commanding 

Major  A.  N.  Anderson   C.  O.  1st  Battalion 

Major  Michael   Kelly    C.  O.  2nd  BattaUon 

Major  Thomas  T.  ReiUy  C.  O.  3rd  Battalion 

166th   infantry  regiment 

Colonel  Benson  Hough   Commanding 

Lieut.  Col.  Bruce  R.  Campbell 

Major  James  A.   Samson    C.  O.  1st  Battalion 

Major  George  T.  Geren    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion 

Major  Robert   Haubrich    C.  O.  3rd  Battalion 

84th   infantry   BRIGADE 

Brigadier  General  Douglas  MacArthur   . . .  Commanding 

1st  Lieut.  William  N.  Wright Aide-de-Camp 

Major  Walter  B.  Wolf  Adjutant 

151sT  machine  gun  battalion 
Major  Cooper  D.  Winn  Commanding 

167th  infantry  regiment 

Colonel  William  P.   Screws    Commanding 

Lieut.  Col.  Walter  E.  Bare 

Major  Robert    Joerg    C.  O.  1st  Battalion 

Major  Ravec   Norriss    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion 

Captain  George  A.  Glenn  C.  O.  3rd  Battalion 


Appendix  II 


^4a 


Colonel  Mathew  A.  Tinley   . 
Lieut.  Col.  Claude  M.  Stanley 

Major  Lloyd  D.   Ross    

Major  Oriville  B.  Yates   . . . 
Major  Charles  J.  Cassey  . . . 


168th   infantry  regiment 

..Commanding 


C.  O.  1st  Battalion 
C.  O.  2nd  Battalion 
C.  O.  3rd  Battalion 


67th  field  artillery  BRIGADE 

Brigadier  General  George  G.  Gatley Commanding 

1st  Lieut.  George  Milton Aide-de-Camp 

Captain  James  A.  Holt   Adjutant 

149th  field  artillery  regiment 

Lieut.  Col.  Curtis  G.  Redden Commanding 

Major  Thomas    S.    Hammond    C.  O.  1st  Battalion 

Major  Thomas   S.   Redden    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion 

150th   field   artillery   regiment 

Colonel  Robert  H.  Tyndall Commanding 

Major  Stanley    S.   Miller    C.  O.  1st  Battalion 

Major  "William    Spence    C.  O.  2nd  Battalion 

Major  William   Cureton    C.  O.  3rd  Battalion 

151sT    field   artillery   regiment 

Colonel  George  E.  Leach Commanding 

Lieut.  Col.  John  H.  McDonald 

Major  E.  P.   Schugg    C.  O.  1st  Battalion 

Major  Thomas  T.  Handy   C.  O.  2nd  Battalion 

117th  trench  mortar  battery 
1st  Lieut.  J.  Woodall  Greene Commanding 

117th   engineer  regiment 

Colonel  John  M.  Johnson  Commandin 

Lieut.  Col.  Wm.  F.  Johnson 

Major  Richard  T.  Smith   


244    The  Story  of  the  Hainbow  Division 

117th  ekoixeer  train 
1st  Lieut.  I.  L.  Hines Commanding 

117th   ammunitioit   traik 
Major  George  J.  Frank    Commanding 

117th   supply  train- 
Major  A.  E.  Devine  Commanding 

117tii    field   signal   battaliok 
Major  Richard   T.   Smith   Commanding 

117tii   train   headquarters  and   military  polick 
Colonel  L.  J.  Fleming   Commanding 

117th   sanitary  train 
Major  "Wilbur  S.   Conkling   Commanding 


APPENDIX  III 

3kiOVEMENTS,   MATERIAL   CAPTURED.   CASUAL- 
TIES 

HEADQUARTERS,   42nd   DIVISION 

AMERICAN     EXPEDITIONARY     FORCES 

16  December,  1919. 
From:        Commanding  General,  42nd  Division. 
To:  Commander-in-Cliief,  American   Expeditionary   Forces. 

Subject:    Report. 

In   accordance  with   No.   1176,  G-3,  G.H.Q.,  American  E.   F., 
the  following  is  submitted: 


Appendix  III  245 


(1)  Headquarters,  42nd  Division,   arrived  in   France   1st   No- 
Tember,  1917. 

(2)  Successive    locations    of   Division    Headquarters    since    ar- 
rival in  France  are  as  follows: 

IK    FRANCE 

Location  Arrived  Left 

St.  Nazaire  1  Nov.,  17  6  Nov.,  17 

Vaucouleurs    8  Nov.,  17  12  Dec,  17 

Lafauche    12  Dec,  17  26  Dec,  17 

Rolampont 26  Dec,  17  17  Feb.,  18 

Luneville   (Lorraine  Sector)    17  Feb.,  IS  31  Mar.,  18 

Baccarat    (Lorraine  Sector)    31  Mar.,  18  21  June,  18 

Chatel-sur-Moselle 21  June,  18  22  June,  18 

St.   Germain-la- Ville    23  June,  18  29  June,  18 

Vadenay  Farm    (Champagne  Sec- 
tor)      29  June,  18  21  July,  18 

La    Ferte-sous-Jouarre    (Chateau- 
Thierry)     21  July,  18  24  July,  18 

Trugny    (Chateau-Thierry  Sector)  "j 

Rear     Echelon,     La      Ferte-sous-  I  24    July,  18       28    July,  18 
Jouarre     J 

Beuvardes    (Chateau-Thierry   Sec-  "| 

tor)     I  28    July,  18       12    Aug.,  18 

*  Rear  Echelon,  Trugny J 

La    Ferte-sous-Jouarre    (Chdteau- 

Thierry)     12  Aug.,  18  17  Aug.,  18 

Bourmont    17  Aug.,  18  30  Aug.,  18 

Chatenois   30  Aug.,  18  5  Sep.,  18 

Colombey-les-Belles    5  Sep.,  18  8  Sep.,  18 

Tout    8  Sep.,  18  9  Sep.,  19 

*  Moved  to  Beuvardes  August  4,  1918. 


246    The  Story  of  the  Bainhow  Division 

Location  Arrived  Left 

Ansauville   (St.  Mihiel  Sector)    ..^  ^    ^        ,o  ^^  c 

Rear  Echelon.  Bruley   ..../  »    «'?•'«  »*  Sep.,  18 

Essey  (St.  Mihiel  Sector)    ^  ,^     ^        ,„  ^,  ^ 

Rear  Echelon.  Ansauville   }  "    Sep..  18  85  Sep..  18 

IS  (St.  Mihiel  Sector)  "1  «^     ^        ,«  ,  ^  .    ,« 

.BouconviUe  .)  **    ^'P' ^»  ^  O''^' " 


Bois  de  Pannes  (St.  Mihiel  Sector) 
Rear  Echelon 


Benoite-Vaux-Couvent  *•  1  Oct.,  18  i  Oct.,  18 

Recicourt    4  Oct.,  18  6  Oct.,  19 

Bois  de  Montfaucon   1  ^  _  ,     ,«  ,,  _  ,     ,_ 

^        ^  ,   ,        _     .        ^                   I  6  Oct.,  18  11  Oct.,  18 

Rear  Echelon,  Recicourt   j 

Chepp7  (Argonne  Sector)  11  Oct.,  18  19  Oct.,  19 

Camp  Drachen(Argonne  Sector)^  ^^                ^  ^  ^^      ^^ 

Rear  Echelon,  Recicourt   f 

ChampigneuUes   (Argonne  Sector)  1  3,^          g  *  Not..  18 

Rear  Echelon,  Recicourt   J 


::) 


Autruche    (Argonne   Sector)    ,       .    ._        ,_  .    ^.        ,_ 

-o        T.i.iTi-        i.  ^4    Nov.,  18         6    Nov.,  18 

Rear  Echelon,  Recicourt  .  ' 


Grandes  Armoises    (Argonne  Sec-^ 

tor)     I      6    Nov.,  18         7    Nov.,  18 

Rear  Echelon,  Recicourt I 


:::} 


Maisoncelle  (Argonne  Sector)    ....      -xt        -,0       ^^xt        ta 
T>         T.i-iT^-        ^  S     ^    Nov.,  18       10    Nov.,  18 

Rear  Echelon,  Recicourt 


Buzancy     10  Nov.,  18  14  Nov.,  19 

LandreviUe    14  Nov.,  18  16  Nov.,  18 

Brand6viUe 16  Nov.,  18  20  Nov.,  19 

Montm^dy   20  Nov.,  18  21  Nov.,  19 


Appendix  III 


247 


IS    BELGIUM 

Location  Arrived 

Virton 21  Nov.,  18 

Arlon    23  Nov.,  18 

ITS  LUXEMBUKO 

Mersch    23  Nov.,  18 

Consdorf    2  Dec,  18 

IN    GERMANY 

Welschbillig    3  Dec,  18 

Bpeicher 5  Dec,  18 

Birresborn 6  Dec,  18 

Dreds    8  Dec,  18 

Adenau    9  Dec,  18 

Ahrweiler    15  Dec,  18 


Left 
92    Nov.,  18 
23  Nov.,  18 


2  Dec,  18 

3  Dec,  18 


5  Dec,  18 

6  Dec,  18 

8  Dec,  18 

9  Dec,  18 
15  Dec,  18 


B. 


Place 

Luneville,  Lorraine. 


Baccarat,  Lorraine. 

Fme.  de  Vadenay, 

Champagne. 

Trugny  and  Beau- 
vardes,  Marne. 

Ansauville,  Essay 
and  Bois  de 
Pannes,  Woevre. 

Cheppy  and  00.5- 
79.5,  N.  E.  of 
Apremont,  Ar- 
gonne-Meuse. 

Autruche,  Grandes 
Armoises  and 
Maisoncelles, 
Meuse-Ardennea . 


Sector 
Dombasle,  Luneville,  St. 

Clement,        Baccarat , 

(Under    8th    French 

Army  and  7th  French 

Army  Corps). 
Baccarat. 
Souain    and    Esperance 

(2d  and  intermediate 

positions). 
Front  of  1st  U.  S.  A.  C. 

(Ourcq). 

Ansauville,  in  center  of 
4thU.S.  A.  C.  Then 
Essey  and  Pannes. 

Leftof  5th  A.C.  (South 
of  St.  Georges — Lan- 
dres-et-St.  Georges — • 
Cote  de  Chatillon), 

Left  of  1st  A.  C.  (South 
of  Sedan). 


Date  of  Active 

Entry  or  Quiet 

21  Feb.,    18         Quiet 


SI  Mar.,  18    Semi-active 
6  July,    18         Active 


25  July,    18        Active 
12  Sept.,  18        Active 


Date  of 

Withdrawal 
23  Mar.,  18 


17  June,  18 
21  July,    18 


S  Aug.,  18 
80  Sept.,  18 


13  Oct.,    18        Active        81  Oct.,    18 


5  Nov.,  18        Active        10  Nov.,  18 


248    The  Story  of  the  Eainbow  Division 
c. 

The  67th  Field  Artillery  Brigade  was  with  the  division  at  all 
times  that  the  division  was  in  the  front  line.  In  addition,  the 
67th  Field  Artillery  Brigade  served  the  following  tours  of  duty, 
supporting  front  line  divisions: 

With  the  4th  Division  from  August  3,  1918,  to  August  11, 
1918,  during  which  time  the  4th  Division  advanced  from  north 
of  the  Foret  de  N^sles  to  the  Vesle  River ; 

With  the  32nd  Division  from  October  7,  1918,  to  October  13, 
1918,  assisting  in  an  attack  on  the  Kriemhilde  Stellung; 

With  the  2nd  Division   from  November  1,  1918,  to  November 

2,  1918,  delivering  preparation  and  barrage  fire  for  the  attack  of 
November  1,  1918,  in  front  of  St.  Georges-Landres-et-St.  Georges. 

The  following  American  artillery  units  have  also  served  with  th« 
42nd  Division  during  its  periods  in  the  front  lines: 
CMteau-Thierry  operation 
51st  Field  Artillery  Brigade,  from  July   25,  1918,  to  August 

3,  1918. 

St.  Mihiel  salient  operation: 

18th  Field  Artillery  Regiment  and  10th  Field  Artillery  Regiment, 
on  September  12-13,  1918. 

Meuse-Argonne   operation: 

1st  Field  Artillery  Brigade,  from  October  13,  1918,  to  Octobe? 
31,  1918. 

D. 

PRISONERS  CAPTURED  BY  THE  RAINBOW  DIVISION 

Oncers 

Baccarat   Sector    0 

Chateau-Thierry  Operation   (Ourcq) 0 

St.  Mihiel  Salient  Operation  8 

Argonne-Meuse  Operation,  13-31  October, 

1918  6 

Argonne-Meuse  Operation,  5-10  Novem- 
ber, 1918   0 

Totals   14 


Men 

Total 

13 

13 

69 

69 

981 

980 

£05 

811 

35 

35 

1,303 

1,317 

Appendix  III  249 

E. 

MATERIAL  CAPTURED  BY  THE  RAINBOW  DIVISION 

Heavy    Light     Trench   Machine 
Art.       Art.     Mortars    Guns          Rifles 
CMteau-Thierry  Opera- 
tion (Ourcq) r..  15  155  

St.  Mihiel  Salient  Op- 
eration           9  13  .0  200  >... 

Argonne-Meuse  Opera- 
tion,   13-31    October, 

1918  1  a  90  

Argonne-Meuse  Opera- 
tion, 5-10  November, 
1918    ,      ..^  9  0  25  2,000 

Totals    0  16  25  470  2,000 


TOTAL  CASUALTIES  OF  THE  RAINBOW  DIVISION  TO 

DATE 

Enlisted 
Oncers  Men. 

Killed    56  1,913 

Died  from  wounds   29  442 

Severely  wounded   79  2,061 

Slightly  wounded  124  5,033 

Gassed     90  2,563 

Missing    0  279 

Prisoners    3  41 


Totals    381  12,339 


250   The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 
a. 

TOTAL  DEPTH  OF  ADVANCE  MADE  BY  RAINBOW  DI- 
VISION IN  EACH  OFFENSIVE  ACTION 

Kilometers 
Advanced 

Ch&teau-Thierry  Operation   17 

St.  Mihiel  Salient  Operation    19 

Argonne-Meuse  Operation,  13-31   October,  1918    ...  2 

Argonne-Meuse  Operation,  5-10  November,  1918  ...  19 

Total 57 


APPENDIX   IV 

CITATIONS  AND  COMMENDATIONS 

6th  Army  Corps 

Staff,  H.  Q.,  June  15,  1918. 

1st  Bureau, 

No.  3243-1 

GENERAL   ORDEBS   NO.    50 

At  the  moment  when  the  42nd  U.  S.  Infantry  Division  is  leav- 
ing the  Lorraine  front,  the  Commanding  General  of  the  6th  Army 
Corps  desires  to  do  homage  to  the  fine  military  qualities  which 
it  has  continuously  exhibited,  and  to  the  services  which  it  has  ren- 
dered in  the  Baccarat  sector. 

The  offensive  ardor,  the  sense  for  the  ultilizations  and  the  or- 
ganizations of  terrain  as  for  the  liaison  of  the  arms,  the  spirit 
of  method,  the  discipline  shown  by  all  its  officers  and  men,  the 
inspirations  animating  them,  prove  that  at  the  first  call,  they  can 
henceforth  take  a  glorious  place  in  the  new  line  of  battle. 

The  Commanding  General  of  the  6th  Army  Corps  expresses  his 
deepest  gratitude  to  the  42nd  Division  for  its  precious  collabora- 
tion; he  particularly  thanks  the  distinguished  Commander  of  this 


Appendix  IV  251 

Division,  General  Menoher,  the  Officers  under  his  orders  and  his 
Staff  so  brilliantly  directed  by  Colonel  MacArthur. 

It  is  with  a  sincere  regret  that  the  entire  6th  Army  Corps  sees 
the  42nd  Division  depart.  But  the  bonds  of  affectionate  com- 
radeship which  have  been  formed  here  will  not  be  broken,  for  us, 
in  faithful  memory,  are  united  the  living  and  the  dead  of  the 
Rainbow  Division,  those  who  are  leaving  for  hard  combats  and 
those  who,  after  having  nobly  sacrificed  their  lives  on  the  land 
of  the  East,  now  rest  there,  guarded  over  piously  by  France. 

These  sentiments  of  warm  esteem  will  be  still  more  deeply  af- 
firmed during  the  impending  struggles  where  the  fate  of  Free 
Peoples  is  to  be  decided. 

May  our  units,  side  by  side,  contribute  valiantly  to  the  triumph 
of  Justice  and  of  Right. 

GEIfERAL    DUPORT, 

Commanding  the  6th  Army  Corps. 
(Signed)  Duport. 

HEADQUARTERS,  42kd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDITIOKARY    FORCES 

IT  July,  1918. 
Memorakdum  : 

The  following  letter  received  is  furnished  Brigade,  Regimental 
and  Separate  Unit  Commanders  for  publication  to  their  respec- 
tive commands: 
4th  Army, 

21st  Army  Corps,  H.  Q.,  July  15th,  1918. 

Staff, 

1st  Bureau, 
No.  4343/1 

From  General  Naulin, 

Commanding  21st  Army  Corps. 
To  13th,  43d,  170th  Inf.  Divs.,  42nd  U.  S.  Inf. 
Div.,  and  Artillery. 

General  Gourattd  this  evening  expressed  his  high  satisfaction 
with  the  success  attained  by  the  21st  Army  Corps  during  the 
stern  but  glorious  day  of  July  15th. 


252    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

Kindly  transmit  to  the  units  under  your  command  the  sincere 
congratulations  of  the  Commanding  General  of  the  Army,  and 
my  own  personal  gratitude  for  the  admirable  tenacity  of  the 
21st  Army  Corps  and  all  the  elements  attached  to  it  on  this  oc- 
casion. 

The  German  has  clearly  broken  his  sword  on  our  lines.  What- 
ever he  may  do  in  the  future,  he  shall  not  pass. 

(Signed)  S.    Nattlin. 

By  command  of  Major  General  Menoher: 

Douglas  MacAhthue, 
Brigadier  General,  General  Staflf, 
Chief  of  StaflF. 
O^cial: 

Walter  E.  Powers, 

Major,  N.  G.,  Adjutant  General, 

"Oivision  Adjutant. 


HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDITIONAHT   FORCES 

17  July,  1918. 
Memorandum  : 

The  following  letter  received  is  furnished  Brigade,  Regimental 
and  Separate  Unit  Commanders  for  publication  to  their  respec- 
tive commands: 
4th  Army, 

Staff,  Army  H.Q.,  July  16,  1918. 

3rd  Bureau, 
No.  6954/3 

SOLDIERS  or  THE  4tH  ARMY 

During  the  day  of  July  15th,  you  broke  the  effort  of  15  Ger- 
man Divisions  supported  by  10  others. 

They  were  expected,  according  to  their  orders,  to  reach  the 
Marne  in  the  evening.  You  stopped  their  advance  clearly  at  the 
point  where  we  desired  to  engage  in  and  win  the  battle. 


Appendix  IV  253 

You  have  the  right  to  be  proud,  heroic  infantrymen  and  ma- 
chine gunners  of  the  advance  posts  who  signaled  the  attack  and 
disintegrated  it,  aviators  who  flew  over  it,  battalions  and  bat- 
teries which  broke  it,  staffs  which  so  minutely  prepared  the  bat- 
tlefield. 

It  is  a  hard  blow  for  the  enemy.  It  is  a  beautiful  day  for 
France. 

I  count  on  you  that  it  may  always  be  the  same,  every  time  he 
dares  to  attack  you,  and  with  all  my  heart  of  a  soldier,  I  thank 

you.  GOURAUD. 


HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAK    EXPEDITIONAaY    FORCES 

18  July,  1918. 
Memorandum  : 

The  following  letter  received  is  furnished  Brigade,  Regimental 
and  Separate  Unit  Commanders  for  publication  to  their  respec- 
tive commands: 
21st  Army  Corps, 

170th  Division,  July  17,  1918. 

Staff, 

3rd  Bureau, 
No.  1517/3 

General  Bernhard,  commanding  par  interum  the  170th  Divi- 
sion.— To  the  Commanding  General  of  the  42nd,  U.  S.  Infantry 
Division. 

The  Commanding  General  of  the  170th  Infantry  Division  de- 
sires to  express  to  the  Commanding  General  of  the  42nd  U.  S. 
Infantry  Division  his  keen  admiration  for  the  courage  and  bravery 
of  which  the  American  Battalions  of  the  83rd  Brigade  have  given 
proof  in  the  course  of  the  hard  fighting  of  the  15th  and  16th  of 
July,  1918,  as  also  for  the  effectiveness  of  the  artillery  fire  of 
the  42nd  U.  S.  Infantry  Division. 

In  these  two  days  the  troops  of  the  United  States,  by  their 
tenacity,  largely  aided  their  French  comrades  in  breaking  the 
repeated  assaults  of  the  7th  Reserve  Division,  the  1st  Infantry 


254    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Divmon 

Division  and  the  Dismounted   Guard  Division  of  the  Germans; 
these  latter  two  divisions  are  among  the  best  of  Germany. 

According  to  the  orders  captured  on  the  German  oflBcers  made 
prisoner,  their  staff  wished  to  take  Ch&lons-sur-Marne  on  the 
evening  of  July  16,  but  it  had  reckoned  without  the  valor  of  the 
American  and  French  combatants  who  told  them  with  machine 
gun,  rifle  and  cannon,  that  they  would  not  pass. 

The  Commanding  General  of  the  170th  Infantry  Division  is 
therefore  particularly  proud  to  observe  that  in  mingling  their 
blood  gloriously  on  the  Battlefield  of  Champagne,  the  Ameri- 
cans and  the  French  of  today  are  continuing  the  magnificent  tra- 
ditions established  a  century  and  a  half  ago  by  Washington  and 
LaFayette;  it  is  with  this  sentiment  that  he  salutes  the  Noble 
Flag  of  the  United  States  in  thinking  of  the  final  Victory. 

Berkard. 


HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDITIONARY    FORCES 

90  July,  1918. 
Memorandum  No.  242. 

The  following  order  of  the  21st  Army  Corps  is  published  for 
the  information  of  all  concerned. 
21st  Army  Corps, 

Staff,  H.  Q.,  July  19,  1918. 

3rd  Bureau, 
No.  2,595/3. 

GENERAL   ORDER 

At  the  moment  when  the  42nd  American  Division  is  on  the 
point  of  leaving  the  21st  Army  Corps,  I  desire  to  express  my 
keen  satisfaction  and  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  services  which  it 
hajs  rendered  under  all  conditions. 

By  its  valor,  ardor  and  its  spirit,  it  has  very  particularly  dis- 
tinguished itself  on  July  15  and  16  in  the  course  of  the  great 
battle  where  the  4th  Army  broke  the  German  offensive  on  the 
Champagne  front. 

I  am  proud  to  have  had  it  under  my  orders  during  this  period; 


Appendix  IV  255 

my  prayers  accompany  it  in  the  great  struggle  engaged  in  for  the 
Uberty  of  the  World. 

General  Natjlix, 
Commanding  the  21st  Army  Corps. 
O^cial: 

The  Chief  of  Staff. 
(Signed) 
By  command  of  Major  General  Menoher: 

Douglas  MacAkthur, 
Brigadier  General,  General  Staff, 
Chief  of  Staff. 
Walter  E.  Powers, 
Major,  N.  G.,  Adjutant  General, 
Division  Adjutant. 


6th  Army,  P.  C,  26  July,  1918. 

Chief  of  Staff, 
3rd  Bureau, 
No.  2,283. 

NOTE 

The  PREsroENT  of  the  Republic,  in  the  course  of  a  visit  to  the 
6th  Army,  expressed  his  satisfaction  over  the  results  obtained,  as 
well  as  for  the  qualities  of  valor  and  perseverance  manifested. 

The  Commanding  General  of  the  6th  Army  is  happy  to  transmit 
to  the  troops  of  his  army  the  felicitations  of  the  Presidekt  of 
the  Republic. 

(Signed)  General  Degoutte. 

*  *  »  *  ♦ 

6th  Army,  P.  C,  26  July,  1918. 

Chief  of  Staff, 
3rd  Bureau, 
No.  2,284/3 

NorrE 
The  Commanding  General  of  the  6th  Army  bring-s  to  the  no- 
tice of  all  troops  of  the  Army  the  following  resolution  voted  by 
the  Mayors  of  the  Arrondissement  of  Meaux  on  the  20th  of  July, 
1918: 


256    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

The  Mayors  of  the  Arrondissement  of  Meaux,  meeting  on  the 
20th  of  July,  1918,  are  happy  to  hail  the  splendid  victory  of  the 
6th  Army,  which  has  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  the  Marne, 
saved  their  communes  from  the  invasion  which  menaced  them. 

Convey  to  the  valiant  troops  of  the  6th  Army  the  sincere  ex- 
pression of  their  gratitude  and  their  admiration. 

The  President  of  the  Congress  of  Mayors, 
(Signed)  G.  Rugel, 

Mayor  of  Meaux, 
Deputy  of  Seine-et-Marne. 
The  Commanding  General  of  the  6th  Army  is  happy  to  com- 
municate these  felicitations  to  the  troops  of  his  army. 

(Signed)  General  Degoutte. 

HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDITIONABY   FORCES 

31  July,  1918. 
Memorandum  No.  246. 

The  following  letter  received  is  furnished  Brigade,  Regimental 
and  Separate  Unit  Conmianders  for  publication  to  their  respec- 
tive commands. 

HEADQUARTERS    FIRST   ARMY   CORPS 

July  28th,  1918. 
From:        Commanding  General,  1st  Army  Corps,  Am.  E.  F. 
To:  Commanding  General,  42nd  Division,  Am.  E.  F. 

Subject :    Congratulations. 

1.  The  return  of  the  42nd  Division  to  the  1st  Army  Corps  was 
a  matter  of  self -congratulation  for  the  Corps  commander,  not  only 
because  of  previous  relations  with  the  Division,  but  also  because 
of  the  crisis  which  existed  at  the  time  of  its  arrival. 

2.  The  standard  of  efficient  performance  of  duty  which  is  domi- 
nated by  the  Commander-in-Chief,  Am.  E.  F.,  is  a  high  one, 
involving  as  it  does  on  an  occasion  such  as  the  present  complete 
self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  entire  personnel,  and  a  willing- 
ness to  accept  cheerfully  every  demand  even  to  the  limit  of  en- 
durance of  the  individual  for  the  sake  of  the  Cause  for  which 
we  are  in  France. 


Appendioj  IV  257 

3.  The  taking  over  of  the  front  of  the  1st  Army  Corps  under 
the  conditions  of  relief  and  advance,  together  with  the  attendant 
difficulty  incident  to  widening  the  front  was  in  itself  no  small 
undertaking,  and  there  is  added  to  this  your  advance  in  the  face 
of  the  enemy  to  a  depth  of  five  or  more  kilometers,  all  under 
cover  of  darkness,  to  the  objective  laid  down  by  higher  authority 
to  be  attained,  which  objective  you  are  holding,  regardless  of  the 
efforts  of  the  enemy  to  dislodge  you.  The  Corps  Commander  is 
pleased  to  inform  you  that  the  42nd  Division  has  fully  measured 
up  to  the  high  standard  above  referred  to,  and  he  reiterates  his 
self-congratulation  that  you  and  your  organization  are  again  a 
part  of  the  1st  Army  Corps,  Am.  E.  F. 

(Signed)  H.  Liggett, 

Major   General,   U.   S.   A. 
By  command  of  Major  General  Menoher: 

Douglas  MacAbthub, 
Brigadier  General,  General  Staff, 
Chief  of  Staff. 
O^cial: 

Walter  E.  Powers, 

Major,  N.  G.,  Adjutant  General, 

Division  Adjutant. 

HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDmOSTARY   FORCES 

6  August,  1918. 
Memorandum  No.  258. 

II.  The   following  General  Order  is   furnished   Brigade,  Regi- 
mental  and   Separate   Battalion  Commanders    for  publication  to 
their  respective  organizations: 
G.  A.  R., 

Etat  Major,  H.  Q.,  August  4th,  1918. 

3rd  Bureau, 
No.  4,190. 

general  order 
The  second  battle  of  the  Marne  ends,  like  the  first  in  a  victory. 
The  Chateau-Thierry  pocket  exists  no  more. 


258     The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

ITie  Vlth  and  Xth  Armies,  also  the  allied  troops  fighting  at 
their  side,  have  taken  a  glorious  part  in  the  battle. 

Their  swift  and  powerful  entrance  in  the  battle,  on  July  18th, 
had,  as  a  first  result,  to  entirely  break  up  the  offensive  of  the 
enemy,  and  compelled  him  to  retreat  across  the  Marne. 

Since  that  time,  owing  to  our  strong  attacks,  and  chased  night 
and  day,  without  stop,  he  has  been  forced  to  fall  back  across  the 
Vesle,  leaving  in  our  hands  25,000  prisoners,  600  guns,  4,000  ma- 
chine guns,  500  minenwerfers. 

We  owe  these  results  to  the  energy  and  skill  of  the  Chiefs,  and 
to  the  extraordinary  valor  of  the  troops,  who,  for  more  than  15 
days,  had  to  march  and  fight  without  rest. 

I  am  sending  to  the  Commanders  of  the  Xth  and  Vlth  Armies, 
Generals  Mangin  and  Degoutte,  to  the  Commanders  of  the  Brit- 
ish and  American  units,  and  to  all  the  troops,  the  token  of  my 
admiration  for  their  knowledge,  their  courage,  their  heroic  tenacity. 

They  may  all  be  proud  of  the  work  accomplished.  It  is  great 
because  it  has  greatly  contributed  to  secure  the  final  victory  for 
us,  and  to  bring  it  much  nearer. 

(Signed)  Fayollb. 

O^cial:    The  Chief  of  StaflF: 

(Signed)     Paquette. 


HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDITIONARY   FORCES 

13  August,  1918. 
Memorandum  No.  261. 

The  following  General  Order,  6th  (French)  Army,  is  published 
to  this  Command: 

6th  Army  P.  C,  9  August,  1918. 

general  order 

Before  the  great  offensive  of  the  18th  of  July,  the  American 
Troops  forming  part  of  the  6th  French  Army  distinguished  them- 
selves in  capturing  from  the  enemy  the  Bois  de  la  Brigade  de 
Marine  and  the  village  of  Vaux,  in  stopping  his  oflFensive  on  the 
Marne  and  at  Fossoy. 


Appendix  IV  259 

Since  then,  they  have  taken  the  most  glorious  part  in  a  second 
battle  of  the  Marne,  rivaling  in  order  and  in  valiance  the  French 
troops.  They  have  in  twenty  days  of  incessant  combat,  liber- 
ated numerous  French  villages  and  realized  across  a  diflficult  coun- 
try an  advance  of  forty  kilometers  which  has  carried  them  be- 
yond the  V^sle. 

Their  glorious  marches  are  marked  by  names  which  will  illus- 
trate in  the  future  the  military  history  of  the  United  States. 
Torcy-Belleaij,     Plateau    d'Etrepilly,    Epieds,    La     Charmel, 
L'OuRCQ,  Seriicges-et-Nesles,  Sergy,  La  Vesle  and  Fismes. 

The  new  divisions  who  were  under  fire  for  the  first  time  showed 
themselves  worthy  of  the  war-time  traditions  of  the  Regular  Army. 
They  have  had  the  same  ardent  desire  to  fight  the  Boche,  the 
same  discipline  by  which  an  order  given  by  the  Chief  is  always 
executed,  whatever  be  the  difficulties  to  overcome  and  the  sacri- 
fices to  undergo. 

The  magnificent  result  so  obtained  are  due  to  the  energy  and 
skill  of  the  Chiefs,  and  to  the  bravery  of  the  soldiers. 

I  am  proud  to  have  commanded  such  troops. 

The  General  Commanding  the  6th  Army, 

Degoutte. 


HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMERICAN    EXPEDITIONARY    FORCES,    FRANCE 

13  August,  1918. 
To  THE  Officers  and  Men  of  the  42nd  Division: 

A  year  has  elapsed  since  the  formation  of  your  organization. 
It  is,  therefore,  fitting  to  consider  what  you  have  accomplished 
as  a  combat  division  and  what  you  should  prepare  to  accom- 
plish in  the  future. 

Your  first  elements  entered  the  trenches  in  Lorraine  on  Feb- 
ruary 21st;  you  served  on  that  front  for  110  days.  You  were 
the  first  American  Division  to  hold  a  divisional  sector  and  when 
you  left  the  sector  June  21st,  you  had  served  continuously  as  a 
division  in  the  trenches  for  a  longer  time  than  any  other  Ameri- 


260    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

can  Division.  Although  you  entered  the  sector  without  experi- 
ence in  actual  warfare,  you  so  conducted  yourselves  as  to  win  the 
respect  and  affection  of  the  French  veterans  with  whom  you 
served.  Under  gas  bombardment,  in  raids,  in  patrols,  in  the  heat 
of  hand  to  hand  combat  and  in  the  long  dull  hours  of  trench 
routine  so  trying  to  a  soldier's  spirit,  you  bore  yourselves  in  a 
manner  worthy  of  the  traditions  of  our  country. 

You  were  withdrawn  from  Lorraine  and  moved  immediately  to 
the  Champagne  front  where  during  the  critical  days  from  July 
14th  to  July  18th,  you  had  the  honor  of  being  the  only  American 
Division  to  fight  in  General  Gouraud*s  Army  which  so  gloriously 
obeyed  his  order,  "We  will  stand  or  die,"  and  by  its  iron  defense 
crushed  the  German  assault  and  made  possible  the  offensive  of 
July  18th  to  the  west  of  Reims. 

From  Champagne  you  were  called  to  take  part  in  exploiting 
the  success  north  of  the  Marne.  Fresh  from  the  battle  front 
before  Chalons,  you  were  thrown  against  the  picked  troops  of 
Germany.  For  eight  consecutive  days,  you  attacked  skillfully 
prepared  positions.  You  captured  great  stores  of  arms  and 
munitions,  you  forced  the  crossings  of  the  Ourcq.  You  took 
Hill  212,  Serge,  Meurcy  Ferme  and  Seringes  by  assault.  You 
drove  the  enemy,  including  an  Imperial  Guard  Division,  before 
you  for  a  depth  of  fifteen  kilometers.  When  your  infantry  was 
relieved,  it  was  in  full  pursuit  of  the  retreating  Germans,  and 
your  artillery  continued  to  progress  and  support  another  Ameri- 
can Division  in  the  advance  to  the  Vesle. 

For  your  services  in  Lorraine,  your  Division  was  formerly 
commended  in  General  Orders  by  the  French  Army  Corps  under 
which  you  served.  For  your  services  in  Champagne,  your  as- 
sembled oflBcers  received  the  personal  thanks  and  commendation 
of  General  Gouraud  himself.  For  your  services  on  the  Ourcu, 
your  Division  was  oflScially  complimented  in  a  letter  from  the 
Commanding  General,  1st  Army  Corps,  of  July  28th,  1918. 

To  your  success,  all  ranks  and  all  services  have  contributed, 
and  I  desire  to  express  to  every  man  in  the  command  my  ap- 
preciation of  his  devoted  and  courageous  effort. 


Appendix  IV  261 

However,  our  position  places  a  burden  of  responsibility  upon 
us  which  we  must  strive  to  bear  steadily  forward  without  fal- 
tering. To  our  comrades  who  have  fallen,  we  owe  the  sacred  obli- 
gation of  maintaining  the  reputation  which  they  died  to  estab- 
lish. The  influence  of  our  performance  on  our  allies  and  on  our 
enemies  cannot  be  overestimated  for  we  were  one  of  the  first 
divisions  sent  from  our  country  to  show  the  world  that  Americans 
can  fight. 

Hard  battles  and  long  campaigns  lie  before  us.  Only  by 
ceaseless  vigilance  and  tireless  preparation  can  we  fit  ourselves 
for  them.  I  urge  you,  therefore,  to  approach  the  future  with 
confidence  but  above  all  with  firm  determination  that  so  far  as 
it  is  in  your  power,  to  spare  no  effort  whether  in  training  or  in 
combat  to  maintain  the  record  of  our  division  and  the  honor  of 
our  country. 

Chahles  T.  Mekoher, 
Major  General,  U.  S.  A., 
Commanding. 


HEADQUARTERS  FOURTH  ARMY  CORPS 

\M£RICAK     EXPEDITIONARY     FORCES,     FRANCE 
GENERAL    ORDER    NO.    5 

13  September,  1918. 

1.  The  Fourth  Corps  has  defeated  the  enemy  and  driven  him 
back  on  the  whole  Corps  Front.  All  objectives  were  reached  be- 
fore the  time  prescribed  in  orders,  a  large  number  of  prisoners 
and  a  considerable  amount  of  booty  captured.  The  rapid  advance 
of  the  Corps,  in  conjunction  with  the  action  of  the  other  ele- 
ments of  the  First  Army,  rendered  the  St.  Mihiel  salient  unten- 
able to  the  enemy,  who  has  retreated. 

2.  The  greatest  obstacles  to  the  advance  was  thought  to  be  the 
enemy  wire  which  presented  a  problem  that  caused  anxiety  to  all 
concerned.  The  Corps  Commander  desires  to  express  in  particu- 
lar his  admiration  of  the  skill  shown  by  the  small  groups  in  the 
advance  battalions  and  their  commanders  in  crossing  the  hostile 
wire,  in  general  to  express  his  appreciation  of  the  high  spirit  and 


262    The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

daring  shown  by  the  troops,  and  the  rapidity  and  eflSciency  with 
which  the  operation  was  conducted. 
By  command  of  Major  General  Dickman: 

Stuart   Heintzelmak, 
Chief  of  StaflF. 


Ofjlcial: 


Philip  L.  Schuyueh, 
Major,  Infantry, 
Adjutant. 


HEADQUARTERS  4th  ARMY  CORPS 

15  September,  1918. 

GENERAL   ORDER    NO.    7 

The  Corps  Commander  is  pleased  to  transmit  to  the  command 
the    following   telegram   received  by  the  Commander-in-Chief: 

"My  dear  General.  The  First  American  Army  under  your 
command  on  the  first  day  has  won  a  magnificent  victory  by  a 
maneuver  as  skillfully  prepared  as  it  was  valiantly  acted.  I  ex- 
tend to  you  as  well  as  to  the  oflScers  and  to  the  troops  under  your 
command  my  warmest  compliments. 

"Marshal  Foch." 


HEADQUARTERS  4th  ARMY  CORPS 

September  17,  1918. 

GENERAL   ORDERS   NO.    8 

The  Corps  Commander  takes  great  pride  in  repeating  the  fol- 
lowing telegram  received  by  him  from  the  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces: 

"Please  accept  my  sincere  congratulations  on  the  successful  and 
important  part  taken  by  the  officers  and  men  of  the  IV  Corps 
in  the  first  offensive  of  the  First  American  Army  on  September 
12th  and  13th,  1918.  The  courageous  dash  and  vigor  of  our 
troops  has  thrilled  our  countrymen  and  evoked  the  enthusiasm  of 


Appendix  IV  263 

our  Allies.    Please   convey  to   your  command  my  heartfelt  ap- 
preciation of  their  splendid  work.     I  am  proud  of  you  all. 

"Pershing." 
By  command  of  Major  General  Dickman. 


HEADQUARTERS,  42nd  DIVISION 

AMEEICAN     EXPEDITIONARY     FORCES,     FRANCE 

November  11,  1918. 
To  THE  Officers  and  Men  of  the  42nd  Division: 

On  the  13th  of  August  I  addressed  to  you  a  letter  summariz- 
ing the  record  of  your  achievements  in  Lorraine,  before  Chalons 
and  on  the  OuRca.  On  the  occasion  of  my  leaving  the  Division, 
I  wish  to  recall  to  you  your  services  since  that  time  and  to  ex- 
press to  you  my  appreciation  of  the  unfailing  spirit  of  courage 
and  cheerfulness  with  which  you  have  met  and  overcome  the  diffi- 
cult tasks  which  have  confronted  you. 

After  leaving  the  region  of  Chateau-Thierry  you  had  scarcely 
been  assembled  in  your  new  area  when  you  were  ordered  to  ad- 
vance by  hard  night  marches  to  participate  in  the  attack  of  the 
St.  Mihiel  Salient.  In  this  first  great  operation  of  the  Ameri- 
can Army,  you  were  instructed  to  deliver  the  main  blow  in  the 
direction  of  the  heights  overlooking  the  Madine  River,  the  cen- 
ter of  the  Fourth  Army  Corps.  In  the  battle  that  followed  you 
took  every  objective  in  twenty-eight  hours.  You  pushed  forward 
advance  elements  five  kilometers  further,  or  nineteen  kilometers 
beyond  your  original  starting  point.  You  took  more  than  one 
thousand  prisoners  from  nine  enemy  Divisions. 

Worn  though  you  were  by  ceaseless  campaigning  since  Feb- 
ruary, you  then  moved  to  the  Verdun  region  to  participate  in  the 
great  blow  which  your  country's  armies  have  struck  west  of  the 
Meuse.  You  took  Hill  288,  La  Tuilerie  Farm  and  the  Cote  de 
Chatillon  and  broke  squarely  across  the  powerful  Kriemhilde 
Stellung,  clearing  the  way  for  the  advance  beyond  St.  George 
and  Landres  et  St.  George.  Marching  and  fighting  day  and  night 
you  thrust  through  the  advancing  lines  of  the  forward  troops  of 


264     The  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division 

the  First  Army.  You  drove  the  enemy  across  the  Meuse.  You 
captured  the  heights  dominating  the  river  before  Sedan  and 
reached  in  the  enemy  lines  the  farthest  point  attained  by  any 
American  troops. 

Since  September  12th,  you  have  taken  over  twelve  hundred 
prisoners;  you  have  freed  twenty-five  French  villages;  you  have 
recovered  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  square  kilometers  of  French 
territory  and  you  have  captured  great  supplies  of  enemy  muni- 
tions and  material. 

Whatever  may  come  in  the  future,  the  men  of  this  Division 
will  have  the  proud  consciousness  that  they  have  thus  far  fought 
wherever  the  American  flag  has  flown  most  gloriously  in  this  war. 
In  the  determining  battle  before  Chalons,  in  the  bloody  drive 
from  Chateau-Thierry  to  the  Vesle,  in  the  blotting  out  of  the  St. 
Mihiel  Salient,  and  in  the  advance  to  Sedan  you  have  played  a 
splendid  and  leading  part. 

I  know  that  you  will  give  the  same  unfailing  support  to  who- 
ever may  succeed  me  as  your  commander,  and  that  you  will  con- 
tinue to  bear  forward  without  faltering  the  colors  of  the  Rain- 
bow Division.  I  leave  you  with  deep  and  affectionate  regret,  and 
I  thank  you  again  for  your  loyalty  to  me  and  your  services  to 
your  country.  You  have  struck  a  vital  blow  in  the  greatest  war 
in  history.  You  have  proved  to  the  world  in  no  mean  measure 
that  our  country  can  defend  its  own. 

Charles  T.  Menoher, 
Major  General,  U.  S.  A., 
Commanding. 


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